Stranger in Paradise
by InuStar
Summary: [COMPLETE] A young girl goes back in time to help out her friends, and stop all the misery from occurring. SBOC. I do LOVE reviews!
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I in no way, shape, form, spirit or hex own the rights to any Harry Potter character. But then as readers of this you should know that._

_Summary: Two years after Voldemort's defeat, lives are left in shambles. A younger friend of Harry's decides to go back in time to help her friends._

_A/N: Okay. It's a time travel story. And yes I am aware that these are everywhere. But I wrote this for fun and to deal with my total obsession with Sirius and the rest of the Marauders. I love this time period, and wish more was done with it... but anyway... If you like it (or even if you don't) leave me a review. It's always nice to think people care... flutter_

Chapter One:

As she snuck down the hall to Filch's office, Serena had to keep reminding herself that what she was about to do was for the good of her friends. Everything she was doing was to help save them from the misery that had always been present in their lives. And since she cared about them so much she was willing to risk the happiness of the rest of the world.

In her seventh year at Hogwarts, Serena was a member of Gryffindor. It was something she took immense pride in. She loved her house, and for her there was nothing greater to be proud of. After all Gryffindor had been the house of Harry Potter. And Harry Potter had been the one to finally rid the world of Lord Voldemort.

He had also become a friend of her's in his last year at the school. That had been only two years ago, while Serena, had been an, as till then, unknown member of Gryffindor. Somehow in her fifth year, with everything happening around them, Serena had managed to become close friends with Harry, and with him the rest of his gang including Hermione, the entire Weasley clan, even Harry's girlfriend Ginny. She had become their friend, and then in that last year watched as it all went wrong.

Yes, in the end Harry managed to finally defeat Voldemort, ridding the world of that scourge. But at what price was their happiness paid? It left Harry with no one to turn to... His parents were dead, his godfather was dead, his mentor Dumbledore was dead, and in that last battle he lost everyone else that was important. Sure they weren't all dead... but some were as good as, if not wishing they were dead. Ron had died, and due to that sad fact, Hermione had since shut herself off from the rest of her friends. Lupin was killed as well, by Peter... though Lupin managed to bring down his once friend with him. Tonks was as inconsolable about this, and became like Hermione, no one had seen her since. The Weasley family itself never really had managed to get over Ron's loss, and wasn't the same place since. There wasn't laughter and joy anymore...

And the result of this all was, that Harry had completely blamed himself for the unhappiness surrounding him. After all with no Voldemort anymore, who was there left to blame? Everyone should have been happy it was all over, but how could they when so little was left. And Harry felt he should have done better protecting everyone. Who could have told him otherwise? With Sirius, Dumbledore, Lupin, Ron and Hermione all gone no one he trusted could set him straight. Ginny tried, she really did, but all Harry saw when he looked at her was her dead brother, and the unhappiness living in her family.

He sunk into a deeper pit of depression.

Serena wanted to help him. She, like most of the others that had survived, felt guilty. Why had we survived? For what purpose? She didn't doubt that Dumbledore would have been angry with all of them giving up, forgetting the love that still existed. But as much as she wanted to give comfort to her friend, it was hopeless. She had been a friend... but not a very close one. That didn't stop her though from wishing, and plotting a way to change this all.

And the answer had come the summer before her seventh year at Hogwarts. It was going to be the first year that none of her old friends would be there with her, since Ginny had graduated last year. The summer had seen her reminiscing over her life at Hogwarts, thumbing through old photo albums. She paused at a picture she had taken of Buckbeak, or Witherwings if you preferred, on the school grounds and her mind immediately brought up the story Hermione had once told her.

_"Harry and I once saved Sirius from the dementors. And Buckbeak. It was amazing... We used the time turner to go back through the day..."_

Hermione's voice faded out in her brain, and Serena's brain focused on only one part of their conversation.

The Time Turner...

If it could go back a day... why then couldn't it go back a year? Or two? Or even 20?

And that was why Serena found herself hidden under Harry's invisibility cloak. She felt a slight twinge of guilt, seeing as how she had stolen it from Harry... but she justified it with the fact that she was using it to make him happy. Now she was using it, and the map she had also stolen from Harry, to get to Filch's office without being found out. All to steal a time turner, that she knew Filch had confiscated.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Serena whispered, tapping the map with her wand. Harry had once told her proudly about this map, taking great joy that his father and godfather had created it, and that it would show every passage and every person in the castle. Thanks needed to be sent to the creators, since it was certainly helping Serena that night. Without it she wouldn't have been able to duck out of Filch's way as he dove out of his office, the words "Peeves" and "eviscerate" hanging in the air as he passed.

Serena quickly made good use of the distraction and slipped into Filch's office, which was overflowing with all the things he had confiscated from students over his long career at the school. She noticed with a grimace the ever growing list that covered an entire wall of his office. It listed all the things that were not allowed. The last she had heard it had reached 1,500 offenses. She spared a moment to wonder how many of those offenses had been created by the Weasleys, or the Marauders back in the day. But the reason she was there called her back, and she quickly used a charm to bring the time turner to her..

"Accio Time turner." Immediately a necklace flew into her hand, it was a dial that when turned would send her forward or backward in time. She took care though not to mess with it at that point though, and slipping the invisibility cloak over her again, she left Filch's office.

Once back in the Gryffindor common room, she relaxed, sitting on the coach and going over her plan in her head.

She was going to go back 20 years, back to the age of the Marauders. It was all very simple. At least in her head it was. She was going to save James and Lily. The only way she could think of to do that was to make sure that they did not choose Peter Pettigrew as their secret keeper. Instead the honour had to go to either Sirius Black or Remus Lupin. That would mean breaking up the inseperable Marauders, and she would just be an outsider, who none of them knew. But it was worth it... so it was worth trying.

The only snag that she needed to get over was explaining her presence at Hogwarts. After all she was going to be a seventh year, when no one had ever met her. The only conceivable way to get around this was to go to the only person she knew would be there that could help her.

Albus Dumbledore.

Of course there was no way she could tell him the exact reason she was there. Without ever having known him that well, she knew completely that he would frown on her changing the future. Even to save lives... even to possibly save his. So instead she would tell him a slightly true lie. That she had accidentally used a time turner and that she had since lost it... She wouldn't have, but she couldn't risk him sending her straight back. And since they didn't exist 20 years ago, she didn't have to worry about that.

Serena took a deep breath, the cloak and marauders map safely tucked in her belt. They would be the only two things she needed to bring with her. Taking another deep breath, she turned the time turner until she was 20 years back in the past. Not that looking around her at the Gryffindor common room could tell her that. It had changed surprisingly little in the long years, her only indication of the year, was the calendar hung on the wall, showing what she supposed was a Quidditch team waving.

Standing up, she quickly tucked the time turner in a pocket of her skirt, and flew out of the common room, only to find herself running past the Gryffindors returning after the year's sorting.

"Did she just come out of our common room?"

"I haven't seen her before..."

She left them all gossiping behind her. She would have preferred to have arrived a bit before this, but she had to see Dumbledore immediately to explain her presence, before having any tricky conversations with people about why she was there.

"Sticky Fizzlewhits" She announced rather hopefully to the phoenix statue. She had already stood there for a few minutes, saying every single candy she could think of, so she was thrilled when it finally opened at allowed her entrance to Dumbledore's office. She knocked quite quietly, since now she was starting to feel the nerves of what she was doing, and where she was. A commanding, but soft voice, though told her to enter, and she without thinking did so.

"I don't know who you are." Dumbledore said suddenly and without preamble. He was watching her quite calmly though, regarding her already dressed in Gryffindor colours.

"Professor!" Serena cried and flew forward into his arms, surprising herself at how easily the fake tears sprung to her eyes. After all she needed to convince him this was an accident, so doing so meant some acting on her part. "I'm sorry! I'm from 20 years in the future! I accidentally used a time turner and it sent me back all this time. I don't know anyone and I miss my friends! But I can't go back since I somehow lost the time turner! You're the only one I knew would be in this time still, even though you have no memory of me! I don't know what to do!" Serena sniffled rather pitifully, and wondered whether her own tears were fake or not.

Dumbledore though was trying to console the poor girl, patting her hair, and without a second believed her completely. At his immediate faith in her, she felt a little sick on the inside, but reminded herself that this was for everyone's good.

"It's okay my dear... We'll find some way to send you back home, though I fear it can't be tonight We don't have time turners in this age, even though there are prototypes."

Serena couldn't hide the widening of her eyes, though she quickly hid it by wiping her eyes. It had never occurred to her that there might have been prototypes, she had just gone by the date of invention in a book she had read. Dumbledore seemed to misread her widened eyes.

"Don't worry my dear. There is no way I would let you use a prototype, no matter how much you want to return home. We'll find some other way. Until then though you're welcome to stay at the school. You don't have to attend classes if you don't want to..."

"No.. It's okay professor. I can't just sit down, I'll just go to class like normal." Serena sniffed pitifully again, and paused to wonder if she was going a bit overboard with the pity factor. But Dumbledore just smiled calmly. While it was certainly true that she didn't like to sit around and do nothing, the real reason for going to classes was to be around the Marauders.

"Well then my dear, we'll just let you stay in Gryffindor, since that appears to have been where you have always been. As for an explanation of who you are... We'll just say you come from Beauxbatons."

"Um, sir..." Serena piped up quietly. "I'm not french, how am I going to explain going to a French school?"

"Simple enough, just tell them you're British but since your parents moved to France for work, you had no other choice. Most people never lose their original language."

"I suppose that would be believable... I've read enough about the school to pass off going there, and I think I know enough French to pass off having lived there. I'll just say I'm abysmal at languages when people tell me I'm terrible at French." She laughed softly, tears gone from her eyes.

"Good, glad to see you've cheered up." He regarded her calmly. "Go see Professor McGonagall and she shall take you to the common room and introduce you. I'll see to books and clothing to hold you over during your stay. Good night."

Serena didn't doubt that this was a dismissal, and turned to leave.

"And don't forget. Tell no one anything of where you come from."

Serena turned and stared at Dumbledore, not doubting for an instance that he was talking about where she lived, but what time, and in that simple sentence she also knew he was warning her from telling anything she knew of the future.

"Yes Professor. Good night." She left the room, and hurried down to McGonagall's office, receiving a mild shock. She knew McGonagall had been there a long time, but it was surprising to see her so young, only in her early thirties, and amazingly so she didn't have her hair pulled back into its severe bun. After a quick explanation, leaving out time travel, McGonagall nodded and led Serena back to the Gryffindor Common room, and the younger girl had to pretend that she knew nothing of where she was going.

Entering the common room, even at the late hour, they found five people still awake, lounging lazily on the couch and chairs. Serena swallowed hard, since looking at every single one of these people, she knew exactly who they were. She knew their names, their futures, and even worse she knew how each one died...


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I in no way, shape, form or spirit, own any of the Harry Potter characters. But then you as readers of Harry Potter would know that._

_Summary: Two years after Harry defeated Voldemort, his younger friend Serena decides to use the time turner to go back in time and stop a certain event from happening. _

_A/N: This story I wrote for fun to deal with my total obsession for Sirius Black and the other Marauders. It's all been written, so updates shall be as regular as rain... unless you live in a desert... then regular as sand _

Chapter Two:

"You all should be in bed." McGonagall said harshly, though Serena thought she almost heard the sound of a small amount of fondness in her voice. 

"Professor. We're seventh years. We don't _have_ curfews." A young man said from a chair by the fire, his sandy blonde hair and messed robes, not to mention the book in his lap, immediately identified him as Remus Lupin. Serena swallowed hard. He was after all the only one of the group she had ever personally met. She had been quite attached to him even, if only from a distance. It was hard not to become fond of a man who always had a bar of chocolate in his robes...

"I just thought you would be tired." McGonagall said smoothly, a smile flitting around her lips.

"We'll go to sleep if you tell us to." A boy sitting on the floor said immediately. His round face, and wide eyes hoping to please, placed him firmly as Peter Pettigrew. Serena frowned looking at him, it was strange that he could look so much like the rat that he was.

"Shut up Wormtail. We don't have to go to bed, and she's not going to tell us to. Would you my lovely professor?" Jumping up from his place on the couch, he swept a bow to McGonagall, fluttering his eyelashes up at her.

"Honestly Sirius..." The only girl in the group, shook her head, though she was openly smiling at his idiotic behaviour. With her red hair, and eyes exactly like Harry's this could only be Lily Evans, and logic spoke that the boy dozing on her shoulder, his hair stuck up at odd angles, was James Potter. Serena swallowed hard staring at them, seeing in them their son, and seeing in them her entire reason.

Serena blinked though at the tall raven haired boy, who was still laying compliments on their head of house. Without hearing his name, she never would have placed him as Harry's godfather. Certainly she had seen pictures of the man, but they had all been after his 12 years in Azkaban. There was nothing of that defeated, time wizened man in this boy. His black hair fell into his face, but didn't hide his deep slate grey eyes, or the extraordinarily handsome face they were set in. She remembered then Harry telling her, depressed at the time of all the deaths that surrounding him, of his godfather.

_"I only ever knew him after it all. He was a defeated man, with sadness pouring out of his eyes... The only thought he had was revenge... I think I might have given him a small bit of happiness. But it was never complete. He was still wanted for murder, he still had no revenge, and he was locked up... even if it was for his own safety. I have this picture of my parent's wedding, and there standing next to my father is Sirius. And I didn't recognize him until Lupin told me... He was younger sure... but that wasn't it. He was smiling, and the only thing in his eyes was happiness. He just didn't look how I knew him. And I just wish I could have known him just once as his old self. And then I felt guilty for even thinking that..."_

The memory flitted out of Serena's mind when she realized that everyone was staring at her, including the now awake James. From the way he was rubbing his side it was apparent that Lily had used a little force to wake him up. Apparently McGonagall had introduced her, explaining her circumstances for being there.

"Apparently she has been struck dumb by my exceptional good looks." Sirius said, sounding completely serious as he moved closer to have a look at her. Everyone snorted, including Serena herself.

Sirius rose an eyebrow at that derisive snort, and Serena didn't doubt in the slightest that he was used to girls going all to giggles around him.

"Well then not dumbstruck by my looks. Then what is your name?"

"Serena Strangeblood. Do you always infect people with stupidity when they see you?" Serena smiled at Sirius who pulled back immediately, looking a little taken aback at her smile, but his mouth twitched at the question. Everyone else though sniggered, she didn't doubt it was from her last name though. Not that she herself didn't want to snigger, she thought her name sounded like a joke as well. She had spent her entire life dealing with the stupid comments from everyone, and it looked like this time period wasn't going to be any different.

"Strangeblood eh?" James bent over and started to laugh. Lily watched him for a minute before smacking him upside the head.

"Now if you're all done..." McGonagall shook her head, though Serena was positive this time that there was a smile tugging at her lips. "Remus, as a prefect for this house, and Lily as Head Girl, I want you both to show her around and help her out. Since she's a seventh year as well, she'll have most of the same classes as you two." She regarded the other three. "Though perhaps not the same as the rest of you, since you did so horribly in some of your OWLs. Though you Mr. Potter should also be able to help out since you're the Head Boy... Though I forget that sometimes." There was no mistaking the disappointment in her gaze as she looked them over.

James and Peter looked slightly abashed, but Sirius just shrugged. "I'm aiming to be held back so I can spend more time with you my dear." He winked at McGonagall, who shook her head and left, ducking out of the portait hole before Sirius could throw any more compliments at her.

"Well then..." Sirius turned and regarded the new student with great interest. She was still standing by the doorway, not sure enough of herself to have moved yet. "Weren't you the one who we saw flying out of the common room earlier?"

"Yes... I had to go see McGonagall. She had to tell me my schedule." Serena smiled at Sirius and held up a paper with the list of her classes. Sirius stared at the smile on her lips, before blinking and grabbing the piece of paper to cover up his stare. He whistled at the list of classes.

"You're taking this many classes?" He shook his head in mock disgust. "You're as bad as Lily and Remus..."

The aforementioned two, stood up and looked over Sirius' shoulder at the schedule.

"Remus and I take seven classes each. But... eight classes really is a heavy load." Lily looked at Serena, a glow of respect in her eyes. She then listed through which of them were in each of her classes.

Serena nodded at each of the listings of her classes. She had just agreed to take all the classes she would have been taking back in her own time. And she was lucky enough to have at least one of the marauder's in each of her classes.

"Your first one is double charms tomorrow. We'll take you down to breakfast tomorrow, and then show you where the class is. Until you know the building, we'll make sure you get to all your classes." Remus smiled. Serena smiled brightly back at him, still finding herself thinking of him fondly, even if this was 20 years before she met him.

"Thank you..." She paused before saying his name, since McGonagall had neglected to introduce her to these students properly, and she wasn't supposed to know who they were. "Was it Remus?"

He blinked at her bright smile, but nodded rather enthusiastically at his own name. "Remus Lupin. Pleasure to meet you." He rather adorably took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing it rather sloppily.

He straightened up, his grin still on his lips. "The main frowning at you...for whatever reason... Is Sirius Black." He pointed to Sirius, who as he said was frowning at them. "That is Lily Evans, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew." She smiled at each of them, even if her smile to Peter was a little forced.

"So where are you from?"James asked.

"Why did you transfer here in your last year?" Peter then asked.

Serena blinked at them, and opened her mouth to answer when Lily interrupted. "Easy boys... It's late, she is likely tired, and I'm sure she'll be happy to answer your questions in the morning." Lily turned to Serena. "I'll show your our rooms up the stairs." With a quickly mumbled good night, she followed the red haired girl up to their rooms.

Remus stared at the doorway after they had gone.

"I think Moony has a little crush..." James said slyly, standing next to his friend and nudging him in the side. The sandy haired youth though, turning a bright red, denied it.

"Of course I don't."

"You were staring at her quite a lot..." Peter said, snickering slightly.

"So? She's new. Sirius was looking a lot as well..."

Sirius snorted. "She was pretty and I look at all pretty girls." He looked at the doorway though, a small frown on his face.

"Who says they even have to be pretty..." James asked innocently.

"Prongs... who says they even have to be female?" Sirius started making doe eyes at James, sidling up to him and making kissing faces at him. The others just laughed, as James tried to push Sirius off of him.

"She really was pretty though..." Remus said rather quietly. Everyone turned and stared at him then. James and Peter smirking as if their point had been proven. Sirius though regarded his friend strangely.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: Okay, so I haven't gotten any reviews, but I don't care and I since this story has already been pre-written I shall upload the chapters until the end. To anyone reading this. I do hope you're enjoying it... _

Chapter 3

A week passed with Serena trying very hard to become friends with the Marauders. Lily was actually amazing, and helped her out as much as anyone could have expected. She or one of the others was always there to take her to her classes, even though she knew well enough where they all were.

The morning after she had arrived, she had told them all where she had come from, that her parents were still living in France, and that she had been going to Beauxbatons but this year, she had gone ahead of her parents to get settled at this new school before they moved back to England. It was all a great whopping lie, and she had to say she was surprised at what a good actress she was.

She was also surprised at how easy it was to be in the Marauder's company. They reminded her sharply of her old friends. James was so much like his son that it was hard at first to be in his company, and Remus and Hermione could have been long lost cousins, both always with their noses in a book. Sirius was the one that got under Serena's skin though, always teasing her and making fun of her last name and anything else he could think of. Lily though assured her that this was his normal way of dealing with anyone he considered a friend. Serena nodded at this explanation, but she still got annoyed with Sirius more then she liked. But even with that annoyance, she was even MORE annoyed with herself, since she kept finding herself looking at him, wondering over and over again how this man had become the one Harry had described.

After a week, Serena went to sleep one night, but she didn't get much sleep.

Serena descended the stairs into the common room after a night of fitful sleeping. She was still wound tight thinking about everything she had to accomplish, and she only had a year to do it. A year to enter the confidence of the Marauder's, to find some proof that Peter was up to something, and to make everyone else believe it. Not to mention her mind kept wandering to the enigma that was Sirius Black. Serena yawned and stretched trying to get her mind off one tall raven haired boy, before opening her eyes to see that there was James waiting for her in the room.

"You don't look like you got too much sleep." James rose an eyebrow at the bags under her eyes and her constant yawning.

"I find it hard to sleep somewhere new... Even a week isn't enough for me to like the bed yet." Serena said hesitantly. She shifted her bag on her arm. "But I am hungry...?"

"Right. We can go down now. Lily and the rest went down already. Lily asked me to wait for you though. I take longer to get ready."

"You know I can find the hall now." She grinned at him. "Must take a long time to get your hair that messy." Serena smiled, recalling the way Harry's hair did the same thing, though not by his choice.

"How did you..?" James muttered. "Lily told you didn't she..." He accepted that as the truth and led her down to the Great Hall, where breakfast was already progressing. They walked down the Gryffindor table, to where Sirius, Lily, Remus and Peter were already eating. James sat down immediately next to Lily, and Serena went to sit on her other side, when she paused like a deer caught in the headlights. She was staring across the great hall at the Slytherin table, and at two people she recognized immediately.

Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy. How had she missed seeing them for an entire week?

"Is Strangeblood's head addled?" Sirius asked, looking at her like she was strange. Though she must have looked the crazy, half crouched ready to sit down, and staring in horror across the hall. Sirius eyes followed to where she had been looking. "Do you know Malfoy or Snivellus?" He asked suspiciously.

Serena caught herself, and calmed down. She sat down and shook her head at Sirius across from her. "No. They remind me of people I knew is all..."

"You're going to want to stay as far from them as possible. They're disgusting slugs." James said emphatically. Lily sighed, shaking her head, apparently used to this outburst. "They'd sell their mothers to the devil if it would get them in good."

Sirius was nodding along with James, but Peter and Remus stayed quiet. Remus likely since he didn't want to encourage his friends' vendettas, but Serena suspected Peter's reasons for staying quiet were all together different.

"They must have some good qualities? No one can be all bad." Serena said, trying to look surprised. She looked at Peter. "Anything at all Peter?" She asked him directly, he squeaked at the question, jumping in his seat.

"Wormtail here isn't used to people asking him questions." Sirius laughed, patting Peter on the back. "He gets nervous. But to answer the question. No. Nothing good at all." He stared Serena straight in the eye, telling her more with that look, more then with words that he was absolutely serious.

For the millionth time, Serena stared at Sirius and wondered how this man could be the same one that Harry had described to her. She really wished that she had come back to the past forewarned that he had been this attractive. She was already finding it difficult to look him in the eye without feeling her stomach do turns. She broke her eyes from his stare and looked instead at Remus, who she found far safer, and who unlike Sirius didn't get under her skin at all.

"So what do you all think of the teachers here? After a week I think I've got them pegged, but sometimes first impressions are wrong." She asked him, smiling slightly at the surprised look on his face.

"Most of them are fine."

"Especially McGonagall." Sirius whistled, winking at the teacher who was at that moment trying to have a conversation with another teacher. She rather commendably ignored Sirius. Serena wasn't so sure she was going to have that ability.

"Anyway..." Remus rolled his eyes. "They're all pretty much okay, the only exception is... "

"Professor Slughorn." Everyone, excepting Lily, said at once.

"He's not that bad..." Lily said, standing up for her Potions teacher.

"Not that bad..." James shook his head, his messy hair falling into his eyes. He pushed it from in front of his glasses and turned to look at Serena. "Lily likes Slughorn, because she is his favourite Potions student. Slughorn though ignores you completely if you don't prove you're worth his attention."

"And all of you don't?" Serena asked surprised. She had expected James at least to have caught Slughorn's eye since he was notorious at least to her, as being able to pick out future star students.

"Well he's tried to get Sirius and I to join his little Slug Club..." James sneered at the name of the club. "But the minute we dropped Potions from our Newt list, he ignored us. He didn't really like us giving up his subject."

"How he could have expected differently I don't know. We all would have failed the OWLs if Lily hadn't been nice enough to help us out a bit." Sirius shuddered at the thought of taking more Potions classes.

"He's really not that bad." Lily said directly to Serena, ignoring all the boys.

"Hmm..." She nodded, but her attention had strayed once again to the Slytherin table, where she was watching Snape and Malfoy carefully. An idea had clicked in her head. If Peter Pettigrew had been involved with Voldemort, then he must have made his connection to the death eaters here at Hogwarts. It was highly likely that the connection had been made with one of those two...

Sirius propped his head on his hand and watched the girl sitting across from him. His blatant staring though was completely ignored since she was staring off the side at something. The raven haired man found himself intrigued and highly confused by this girl who had suddenly shown up only a week ago. She was, as Moony had pointed out more then a few times, extremely pretty. Her hair fell in auburn wavy curls down her back, which he had already noticed she had trouble keeping out of her face since she kept pushing it back. It really was her eyes though that were striking, since they were a bright purple colour, that he had never seen before. Of course add to all that her pert nose with it's few freckles sprinkled over it, her full lips, and her even fuller figure, and she was certainly very attractive. But Sirius was entirely used to attractive girls, he had a different one every week or so. The thing about this one was that for some reason she intrigued him. Though that could be because he seemed to have absolutely no affect on her. Quite the opposite in fact, she never looked at him more then she had to, and seemed to get annoyed with him on an hourly basis.

The second day she had been there she had gotten angry with him for making fun of her name, something he didn't understand since her name was funny anyway. The third day he had been given hell because he had played a small prank on her, just setting a frog in her lap. Everyday after that she had found plenty of things wrong with him. His hair was too long, he was slacking off in class, he was disturbing her study time... Every time he even looked at her he found her looking at him, a rather glum expression on her face. He had tried smiling charmingly at her, but she had merely huffed and turned away. He had asked all his friends what he was doing wrong, but none of them had any answer. Lily had just smiled at him, and said 'It's about time', as if he even knew what that meant. The handsome, charming student was intrigued by a girl, and he didn't know what to do about her. He was also worried over Remus' obvious attraction for her. Though he wasn't sure if he was worried for Remus, or for himself.

Blinking away his thoughts, Sirius frowned when he saw Serena was still staring, deep in thought at something. He waved a hand in front of her face.

"You had better not be falling for Malfoy." He said harshly, realizing she was staring at the Slytherins again. In his head he had sounded playful trying to charm Serena into looking at him, but once it passed his lips it sounded harsh and accusatory even to his ears.

Everyone looked at him in shock, including Serena who blinked rather confused, red coming to her face as she turned to glare at Sirius. He had gotten what he wanted, she was looking at him, but certainly not in the way he had intended.

"Who I may or may not be falling for is in no way your business." Serena said angrily, standing up suddenly, angry at the accusation, disgusted even. "I haven't known you that long but you're easy enough to read. You think every girl would be happy to fall in love with you. Any girl who falls for you would be a fool." She turned in a huff and stalked out of the hall, leaving everyone staring at Sirius, who was staring at her retreating back.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Hah... Still uploading, though I fear it's out of a stubborn pride now. I love all the Marauders, with the one exception of Peter. but really who can blame me? But I do think it would be interesting for JKR to write something more about that time period... oh what fun._

Chapter Four

Sirius was still staring at the door Serena had left through.

"I think she's angry." Peter said then.

"Thank you for the obvious." Sirius snapped at him, growling softly. "She's just angry with me for saying she's in love with Malfoy."

"I had better go find her... She looked really upset..." Lily shook her head, grabbing her bag and standing up. "Amazing Sirius. I think she's the first girl not to fall under your spell, other then me of course. I knew there was a reason I liked her." She walked out, still shaking her head.

"Well she could do worse then to fall for me."

Sirius groaned and turned to look at Malfoy who was sneering down at Sirius. Snape was as usual only a few steps behind him, a smirk on his face.

"Though the idea of a Gryffindor liking me makes me nauseous." Malfoy's lips twisted in a grimace. "But if it has to happen, at least it's an attractive one. Maybe I'll go take her up on her offer."

Sirius stood up, anger shooting from his eyes. Immediately Remus and James were standing as well. "Stay away from her." Realizing how this sounded he tried to cover it up. "Just stay away from any Gryffindor. After all you've got Snivellus there to keep you company on cold nights..." Both Slytherins' eyes widened and wands were suddenly pulled.

"What are you doing?" McGonagall said calmly beside them both. Without a word, the wands disappeared back into the folds' of their robes.

"Nothing.. Professor. Black here was just letting me know about a situation I'll need to deal with. If you'll excuse me." Lucius swept past them, out of the hall, Snape struggling to keep up.

McGonagall regarded Sirius seriously. "Keep out of trouble Mr. Black. Mr Lupin, Potter, try to exercise some control over your friend." She then too left the hall.

"Padfoot...?" James started tentatively.

Peter was staring at the door that Lucius had left through, but brought his eyes to his friends at James' voice.

"You were really protective of Serena there..." Remus asked, looking a little worried.

Sirius fought back the urge to growl at the mention of the name. "The damned chit just insulted me, for no reason. Still no one deserves Malfoy's attention." He muttered as he grabbed his own book bag. "We're going to be late for Charms.

Serena had stalked half way to this class angrily insulting Sirius Black in her head, before she realized she realized that she was thinking about that boy far too much.

The idea of her falling in love with Snape or Malfoy had made her physically sick, and she had instantly been angry with the fool who had suggested it. A small voice in the back of her head suggested that Sirius wouldn't have known how sickening this idea was to her, that she was supposed to be new. How could he knew they would be so detrimental to her future friends' happiness? But she ignored it. The idea she would have a crush on people who had so crushed her friend's lives was as disgusting as liking Peter._ But not as bad as Sirius_... the voice in the back of her mind whispered again.

Luckily Lily came along and found Serena before she had started to beat her head against the wall.

The two took a seat in the front of their Charms class.

"Don't judge Sirius too hard, 'Rena..." Lily said softly. "It's true he is a ladies man to a certain degree. Most girls gladly fall in love with him. It has to do with his face I assume."

Hearing this didn't improve Serena's mood so all she did was grunt in reply.

"But he's a good guy despite it. He's just had a long history with women who fall for him before they even know him, it's hard for him to deal with a different type is all. You should have seen him when he found out I never had liked him, but James. It's like he had found an entirely new species." Lily laughed softly, and even Serena had to smile at the expression she knew would have been on his face.

"I don't like people accusing me of things though." Serena said. "And it was obvious to him, liking Malfoy was an accusation."

"Well it's certainly not a good idea." Lily said sensibly. "You don't, do you?" Immediately she was concerned and the auburn haired girl had to clamp down the immediate nausea that those words produced. It was almost as bad as if Harry had accused her of loving Voldemort.

"No..." Serena shook her head emphatically. Lily just nodded, because at that point other students and their Charms teacher entered the room.

Five minutes after class had started, the Marauders finally arrived, their entrance met with a sharp declaration of Gryffindor losing 20 points, five each, from their Professor. Even in this time period, Serena found herself glaring angrily at the boys for costing her house points.

"Oh now you've made her even more mad." James nudged Sirius. They sat at the table next to where Lily and Serena were sitting, ignoring them completely working on their homework.

"How am I the one to blame? You all were late too."

"We wouldn't have been if you hadn't gotten into a fight with Malfoy." James let his voice carry.

"You got into a fight with Malfoy?" Serena turned and stared at Sirius, not aware that she had practically screamed that. Sirius was more surprised by the panic he thought he glimpsed in her eyes, but it was gone quickly enough. He immediately went cold, reading that as more proof that she liked Malfoy.

"Miss Strangeblood..." The professor taped on her desk. "Pay attention. I do hope you're not going to fall into the normal trap with Mr. Black. So many young women do..." He shook his head, and Serena stared down at her desk, her face a bright red.

Everyone laughed at this, except for Remus who looked worried, Lily who was trying to cheer Serena up, and Sirius who knew that little joke from the Professor was going to cost him later.

At the end of the class, the boys started to catch up with Lily and Serena who were walking rather hurriedly back to the common room. They stayed back though, listening in on their conversation.

"I do NOT like Black." Serena said emphatically to the red haired girl, who put up her hands in protest.

"I never said that."

"Sirius is... he's... he's an egotistical lout! He makes fun of me all the time, he keeps picking on me, on my last name."

Behind her Sirius winced, looking about ready to apologize when Serena continued on.

"I actually prefer Remus, at least he's nice to me." Serena said, giving a small hmph, completely unaware that the boy's had caught up with them by now. Lily's grimace though alerted her to that fact, and dreading it she turned to see them all staring at her in shock. Remus' face was a bright red, and he couldn't meet her eyes. James was laughing, and Peter just looked confused. Sirius though was burning holes into her with his eyes. Immediately Serena regretted saying that, she had just wanted to... She wasn't sure what she had wanted. She had just panicked at the idea of liking Sirius. It had slipped out.

She blushed and before anyone could say anything, she turned and sprinted back to the common room.

"Way to go Moony." James patted his friend on the back. Sirius though said nothing and stalked off in the opposite direction.

"What's got his knickers in a twist?" James said, amused though at his friend's reaction.

"Like she said... He's used to all the girls liking him." Peter said, then grimaced before he realized Sirius had left and no one was going to hit him.

"Even Sirius wouldn't begrudge his friend a girl..." Lily looked thoughtfully at Sirius' back as he left.

Remus though was still trying to get his throat to start working, his face bright with the sudden blood flow.

During the next few weeks, Serena came to a serious snag in her plans. The beginning step was not going as she had hoped, and it all had been because of that one slip of her tongue. She needed to get into the confidence of all the Marauder's, so that if she ever got information on Peter, they would trust her. Except a month had passed and the only people she spoke to with any feeling of friendship were Lily and strangely Peter. The former because since they were both girls they felt the need to stick together, and the later because he thought she was amazing to stand up to Sirius. The rest though kept a certain distance from her. Remus was still amazingly embarrassed when he saw her, finding it hard to speak to her, tripping over his own tongue and going red. She understood that though, after all she had said she liked him, even if she hadn't really meant it in the way everyone assumed. Every time she tried to explain it though, Remus would basically run away from her. It was annoying, but if she could just pin him down, she could solve the problem with him.

It was the other two that were confusing her. Lily couldn't offer much explanation to the situation either. Just that Sirius was angry and when Sirius doesn't like something, neither does James.

So the crux of the problem was Sirius, and if her plan was going to work, he was the part she had to put into place. The only time she saw him without any of his other friends around was during their care of magical creatures class, which had been hell since the beginning, since she knew no one, except Sirius. And he was stonily silent to her, never even looking at her really.

Finally after having had enough of this behaviour, and after a particularly horrible class with blast end skrewts, Serena resolved to put an end to this stalemate. On the way back to the castle, she grabbed Sirius' hand and forcibly pulled him into the Forbidden Forest.

"Trying to get me killed in here?" He asked, calmly watching her as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"If I wanted to do that, I wouldn't be here with you." Serena snorted, breathing heavily from the effort of dragging a man who was taller then she was. "There's nothing dangerous in this part of the woods anyway. The giant spiders, giants, and centaurs are on the other side." She shook her head. "Harry told me that."

"Who's Harry?" Sirius asked, immediately curious, forgetting about being dragged here. "How do you know what's in here if you only transferred a month ago?"

Immediately Serena cursed herself, in her anger with Sirius, she had let information slip. Instead of explaining though she just decided to ignore it.

"None of that is your business." She huffed, but immediately sighed since Sirius was back to his stony treatment of her, enough cold air coming from him to cause it to snow.

"I don't know WHY you hate me? It can't be just that I didn't fall for you can it? You're not THAT egotistical!" Serena shook her head, hair falling into her face, that she pushed back angrily. She found herself angry with Sirius, not for disrupting her plans anymore, instead angry that he wasn't speaking to her. She had found herself watching him too much this last month, watching him laugh with his friends. She had also found that her heart clenched painfully every time he turned silent when she came near, only to start laughing and smiling as she passed.

"Who said I hate you?" Sirius snorted derisively. "And maybe I am that egotistical? Not that you should care anyway right? All the girls who fall for me are fools aren't they?" Serena grimaced as her own words were thrown back at her. "Does it really matter to you if I talk to you or not?"

"Yes..." Serena said quietly, surprised at the tears she found in her eyes. She didn't know why exactly, but it did disturb her that he wasn't talking to her. She had found, much to her continued annoyance, that she had enjoyed his company that first week, even if he had spent most of it teasing her. But at least it had been fun.

"You said you liked Remus." He said softly, his anger dissipating at the sight of her bright eyes.

"What does THAT have to do with anything?" Her voice rose a bit, exasperation rising again. "I like Remus. He's been nice to me... even if lately he can't talk to me. I don't have a crush on him though. You all came at the wrong time though... I just meant that I liked Remus more then you. After all he was far nicer. I didn't want anyone to think I liked you okay. I didn't think I needed to be added to your list of women."

"You don't like Remus?" Sirius asked quietly, having apparently ignored everything else she said. Amazingly Serena found herself smiling slightly at the pleased look on the man's face.

"Shouldn't you be a little more disappointed for your friend?"

At this Sirius blushed ever so slightly. "I'm not that worried for him... He has plenty of admirers at the school. Though I think he was just pleased for once he had an attractive one."

"I'm not attractive." Serena snorted, and Sirius had a roguish grinned plastered to his face. "I'm sure Remus was mainly pleased someone appeared to like him over you, for once."

"It happens." Sirius shrugged. "Look at Lily. She never looked at me once... Barely looked at James more then once either truth be told, but then... she's stubborn."

"Poor Remus though..." Serena looked worriedly at Sirius. "You don't think he's going to be too hurt by this do you? I really wasn't lying when I said I liked him."

"He'll get over it. He's not in love or anything." Sirius looked down at the ground, suddenly rather bashful. "I'm really...sorry." The last word was almost too soft to hear, but Serena's ears picked it up and she grinned. She knew immediately that this was not something that Sirius did too often. "I shouldn't have treated you like a leper for the last month. I was just...jealous." The last word this time was even softer, and Serena even had trouble hearing it, but she did. Though she certainly doubted it.

"Jealous?" She asked, to verify it. The raven haired youth just nodded dumbly. "You really are egotistical aren't you? Imagine thinking all the girls should like you..." Serena smiled, sounding rather amused instead of annoyed with Sirius.

"I didn't mean it that way!" Sirius said, looking hard at Serena. "I wasn't jealous because you didn't like me... I was jealous because..."

"What are you two doin' in 'ere?"

Both of them jumped in surprise at Hagrid, the groundskeeper's sudden appearance in front of them.

"Imagine using the Forbidden Forest as a lover's meeting spot..." Hagrid shook his head in shock. "Get out now, or I'll report you up to the headmaster." He shooed them out of the forest, and both students found themselves laughing about it as they walked back up to the castle, the lights starting to dim with approaching nightfall.

"I can't believe he actually thought we were having an illicit romantic meeting. In that forest!" Serena shook her head, wiping the water from her eyes from laughing so hard.

"I think I might be hurt by that... Is there something wrong with having an illicit meeting with me?" Sirius placed his hand on his heart, looking affronted.

"I suppose that WOULD be the type of place you'd bring a girl on a date." Shaking her head, the young girl continued to walk on, but was stopped by a hand on her arm.

"I was jealous because you liked Remus and not me. Not because you didn't like me."Sirius said softly, finishing what he had been about to say in the forest. Serena's eyes widened, staring at him, her heart beating wildly against her chest.

"How exactly... are those two things different?" She licked her lips, trying to make her brain work again, except it was hard when she found herself staring at his lips instead. She was amazed her voice had only broken the once.

"One means I wanted you to like me because all girls do. The other means I wanted you to like me and only me, I was jealous of Remus. I don't know why but I've thought about you too often since you came. I couldn't stop looking at you."

"That's not true." Serena scoffed. "You've been avoiding me like the plague this last month. Every time I even looked at you, you were studiously looking somewhere else."

"Well you didn't expect me to let you catch me at it did you?" Sirius grinned again, that typical roguish grin that turned any girl's knees to jelly. "After all you liked one of my best friends, and as crappy as a friend as I was for liking you, I wasn't about to let you know about it."

"But I don't like Remus..."

"I know that now..." Sirius moved closer to her, and she stayed where she was. The logical side of her brain was telling her that this was a very bad idea, and that she needed to leave. But she couldn't move a muscle, all she could do was stare at Sirius' lips, wondering how a boy had such perfect, pink lips, and wondering what they would taste like. A second later she found out as Sirius gently lifted her chin up and moved his lips down to capture hers.

A strangled groan broke them apart, and they both stared up the steps at Remus' who was looking in pain.

"We wondered...where you were... Came to see where you were... sorry..." Remus turned and took flight. Serena covered her face in her hands, her cheeks red from shame and embarrassment. She heard a sickening thud, and moving her hands saw Sirius, his fist planted in a nearby tree.

Without another word to him, she ran past him, up the hill into the castle. The small voice in the back of her head though was telling her repeatedly that mint kisses tasted good.


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Hey I got reviews! That's sweet... _

_**Sadiler: Thank you for the review. Is Serena really that tricky? I'm glad that I made her a good OC though, I was worried when you had her stacked up against long standing characters...**_

_**Linac438: You were my first reviewer for this story so thank you so much. Glad to have people enjoying what I wrote. No worries about my updating, the story is finished. :)**_

Chapter 5

"Seriously Padfoot. I can't believe you did that." James shook his head in disgust, even Peter was following suit. "I knew you liked having girls fall over you, but I didn't think you'd try to steal the one who liked Remus."

"I didn't..." Sirius growled out, sitting in the common room and regretting already that he had told the two what had happened. "I'm telling you it's not like that. I didn't try anything like stealing her. I just... I like her is all!"

"You like all women." Peter snorted, and ducked, but Sirius hadn't moved at all.

"This time is different." Sirius said softly. His two friends exchanged surprised looks. That was true. It was normal for their friend to have many different girls falling over him, but he never actually went out of his way for any of them. In the past he never said no to a woman, but he never tried to attract any of them. With his face and attitude it always just happened.

"You know... in the last month you haven't flirted with any girls. You turned down every one I saw you near. I just thought you were angry about something. If you really liked her you should have told Remus."

"I was going to!" Sirius said, getting angry again. "I was going to! But not before today. I had thought she liked him. But she told me today that she had meant as a friend." Sirius shook his head. " I didn't mean to kiss her. But I did. I didn't mean for Moony to find out that way either."

Peter shook his head. "'Rena should have told him already that she didn't like him that way. Instead of leading him along." Peter jumped at Sirius' sudden growl.

"That would have been hard with Remus' running in the opposite direction each time she tried." Lily dropped onto the couch beside her boyfriend.

"She's not coming down is she?" Sirius said, a note of dejection in his voice.

"She feels horrible. She doesn't want to see you or Remus." Lily shook her head.

"This year keeps getting worse..." Sirius groaned.

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Serena was at that moment, crying herself silly in her bed. Partly because she felt terrible having hurt Remus, partly because her plans were falling apart. She was singlehandedly tearing apart the Marauder's. It wasn't even in the way she had wanted. Making them distrust Peter was the plan, not drive a wedge between Sirius and Remus... She was mainly crying though because her heart was having too much control over her. She was falling for Sirius Black, even though this was ultimately the worst thing she could do. By the end of this year she was going to be back in her own time, and he wouldn't see her again for a very long time. That was if he even lived...

This caused her to start crying afresh.

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The next day, completely cried out, and with a fresh determination to get her plans finished sooner then later, Serena marched down into the common room. She felt a small jolt when she saw Sirius lounging in an armchair, an even bigger jolt at his pleased smile to see her, but she blocked those feelings out.

"Where's Remus?" She asked, not looking at Sirius directly.

Like a puppy who had been told off, Sirius looked depressed at the lack of attention he was getting, but he answered the question. "He's in the astronomy tower..."

Keeping her eyes off him, Serena swept past him, ignoring the butterflies that had flown in to her stomach at the mere sight of the man, or the memories the sight caused her. She still had the phantom taste of mint in her mouth.

Climbing to the Astronomy tower, Serena found Remus concentrating too carefully on an astrolabe, his clothes were even messier then was normal for him.

"Remus..." Serena called softly from the doorway, looking at him sadly as he jumped in fright of her appearance. "I need to talk to you."

"It's okay really." He started to gather his things to make a quick exit.

"It's not okay. There is something I should have told you a month ago..." She shook her ahead. "You all heard a part of a conversation, and took assumptions from it. Remus, I really like you, really. But when you heard me say that, I meant I preferred you to Sirius at that time, but not that I had a crush on you. I'm sorry."

Remus looked so dejected that Serena immediately went over to him and hugged him. "You're my friend. I'm always going to be fond of you." She smiled, telling him the truth, since even twenty years later she would be fond of him.

"But you LIKE Sirius now? Did you back then?" Remus asked, finding his usual courage to talk again.

"I..." Lines appeared on Serena's forehead from the frown there. "If I said yes are you going to hate us both?"

Remus regarded her quietly, far too long for her taste. "No..." He finally said. "He's my friend, I can't hate him just because a girl likes him. And I can't hate you just because I misinterpreted something."

"Oh I'm so glad!" Serena hugged Remus again. "I want us to be friends Remus." She frowned slightly. "Oh that does sound a bit rude of me... I mean that must sound horrible from a girl who you had liked."

"It's fine." Remus laughed quietly. "It's true that I liked you... I'm sure given more time I might have fallen in love with you. I don't think I'm that weak though. Sirius is too good a friend for me to stand in his way when he likes a girl, when he falls in love with one."

"He is not in love with me." Serena immediately scoffed, much to Remus' surprise.

"You can't possibly..." He shook his head. "You've managed to make Sirius calm down, I haven't even seen him with a girl this year. Now that I think about it I should have realized a while back that he liked you. I just thought it was his normal thing for pretty girls. But to manage to stay away from women for this long... That's never happened before. Did you think that would have happened if he hadn't fallen in love with you? "

"As you said he has a thing for pretty girls. So he can't like me." She waved the problem off, but Remus was looking at her strangely.

"You're pretty. Did you think you weren't? Sirius wouldn't be interested for this long if you weren't..."

"Well I would hope he would like a girl for something on the inside. Her brains or heart maybe?" Serena muttered.

"Well for him to stay interested past a week, yeah." Remus snickered. "That's never happened, though."

"And it's not happening now." Serena said firmly. "I am not going to go out with Sirius Black. As you just proved, he would be terrible to get involved with." Serena pushed back the disappointed feelings that immediately popped up. She knew she was right, not only would a relationship with Sirius cause problems with her plan, it would break her heart in the end.

"I thought you said you liked him...?" The sandy haired youth looked confused.

"That important is it? Every other girl he dumped liked him as well. Unlike all of them though I am not stupid enough to get myself involved with someone I know will get tired in a week."

Remus regarded Serena carefully. "I don't know... As I said since this little feud with you began, he hasn't had any relationships. Normally he'd have gone through a good third of the female students. I'm sure even the mighty Sirius Black has to really fall in love once..."

Serena stared at him, shock on her features before laughing. "I told you he doesn't love me. A month of glaring at me and one kiss does not mean he's in love with me."

Remus sighed, giving up on trying to change her mind.

"Now tell me... How is your report coming on the water kestral for DADA? I can't seem to word mine properly"

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Once everything with Remus had been settled, things started to take an upwards turn for Serena. She considered Remus and Lily at least to be her good friends, and James seemed fond enough of her. Peter still looked at her with an amount of respect, as he did for the rest of the group. Anyone who was more attractive or smarter then he was got that automatically. Then of course there was Sirius...

It had been two months since the incident, and true to her word Serena was not going out with Sirius, nor did she have plans to. They hadn't reverted to angry glares and silence again, the two spoke to each other normally. But Serena at least made a conscious effort not to be alone with Sirius, because despite her firm determination not to like him anymore... her heart still did flips when she so much as looked at him. But the feelings she felt were just gave her more determination to avoid him. After all how can you have a relationship with a dead man? To Lily's ever growing worry, Serena found herself crying at night to that very thought. But in the morning everything was fine. She just hoped that Lily didn't tell James about it. Since what James knew...

Sirius on the other hand was shocking everyone, especially his teachers. He had avoided any relationships so far that year, and due to that his grades had even improved. Of course he and James were still plotting and experimenting with pranks on varying levels, but other then the detentions he received for that, his teachers were almost... pleased.

Remus and Lily kept pointing this out to Serena, nudging her and telling her. 'See. It's different'. They were trying very hard to prove to their new friend, that their old friend was amending his ways for her, so she couldn't possibly have any excuses now. Of course they didn't know. They couldn't know the real reasons for her distance from Sirius.

They were the only two though that seemed to be trying, Sirius himself seemed okay enough with how things were. He stopped trying to talk to her after the first week when she had made it plain she wasn't going to go out with him, he now didn't try to talk to her except the occasional comment when they were in group settings, or to ask her about homework. Care for Magical Creatures was an improvement from the first month, but only barely. They spoke occasionally in class, but right after they left separately.

Truth be known it was all very, very annoying to Serena. And every once in awhile she found herself having the urge to drag him back into the forbidden forest like last time. It was a bad idea, but her brain still thought of it after every class with him. Her heart was in complete agreement as well, probably tired of the horrible pain it was going through each time she had to watch Sirius walk away.

But that was all stamped down. She just had to keep reminding herself that she was here to help Harry and the others in the future. It was also a good reminder that Sirius was Harry's godfather, and therefore not a suitable love interest. And of course when she went back he would be twenty years older then her. Not to mention he might still end up dying in the future... This last thought made her stop walking, immediate tears coming to her eyes, and once again the urge to go find Sirius flared up.

"I might change things though..." Serena said quietly.

"Talking to ourselves are we? Gryffindor lunacy sets in..."

Serena turned around and stared wide eyed at Lucius Malfoy, Snape and a few other Slytherins standing behind him, laughing at his joke.

"Malfoy..."Serena sighed, looking annoyed at the group.

"It's amazing how you've learned to disregard my presence so much. Strange since when you first came I remember you staring at me..." Malfoy smirked and came up closer to her, bringing his hand up to brush her cheek.

"I stared at you only because you looked like someone else I knew. Now, I don't like people touching me, so be careful or I'll have to break your hand" Serena pushed his hand off, taking a step back, and smiling calmly.

"Strong words from a girl all alone out here." Behind Malfoy, Snape was laughing quietly, and Serena realized that he was right. "You've managed to fall in with that idiotic crowd of baboons, but even they can't be everywhere. Can they?" Malfoy moved closer again, and grabbed a lock of her hair, leaning in closer to sniff it.

"I don't need any of them to help me with people like you." Serena brought her knee up sharply, causing Malfoy to drop to his knees in pain. Immediately her wand was out and pointing at the rest of the Slytherins. "I told you I don't like people touching me." She sighed, and bent down to help Malfoy up, but he snarled at her and smacked her hand away.

"Well it certainly looks like you've got this handled."

Serena straightened and looked wide eyed at Sirius who was walking casually back down the hill. "I was a little worried when I saw the bunch of snakes sliming down here." She looked at him closely noticing what he was trying to hide, that he seemed a little out of breath, and that in all likelihood that casual walk had been forced. The thought that he had hurried to her rescue, however unneeded it was, warmed her.

"I don't need your help. Thank you." Serena flipped her hair over her shoulder, and grabbed her bag walking up the hill and past her would be saviour, trying to remember that she didn't like him.

"You don't need me at all..." Serena paused for a moment, hearing his soft words on the wind. Her mouth opened to say something, but before she could ruin herself she ran the rest of the way up the hill.

Sirius walked rather dejectedly into the Gryffindor common room, and dropped immediately into an armchair by the fire.

"What happened to Serena?" Lily asked, her eyes accusing him from across the room. "She came running in here, completely in tears. She tore up the stairs, and she refuses to come down or tell me what happened."

Blinking, rather confused at the red haired girl, Sirius shrugged, stretching his long body, trying to get heat back into it after standing in the cold.

"I didn't do anything to her."

"Yes but when she runs in here crying, and you walk in soon after looking like a little boy who's lost his toy... well some things are obvious."

"She had a run in with the Slytherins. I don't know why she's crying though, she took care of them by the time I came down."

"And you didn't say anything to her...?" Lily narrowed her eyes.

Frowning, Sirius shook his head. "I just told her she didn't need me."

A contemplative look appeared on the girl's face, like pieces had finally fit into a puzzle.

Before anything else could be said though, James walked through the doorway. He dropped down next to his girlfriend, giving her a quick kiss before grinning at Sirius.

"So Padfoot... The parents would like to know if you're coming to stay for the holidays. I told them I assumed you were."

"Actually... I think I'll stay in the castle this year." Sirius said quietly.

Lily smiled slightly. "The rest of us are going home. You'll be all on your own." She paused, almost for dramatic effect. "Well except Serena, she says she has too much homework to do, so she's staying here..."

He stood up suddenly, ignoring the smug looks from his two friends. "That's interesting. Not like I care. I just have some planning to do. It's our last year, I need to get a prank ready. The biggest one yet."

They both just nodded, accepting his reasoning.


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: Still trying to keep up with consistent uploading. For all my readers... all... ten of them.. smirk Just kidding. :) I'm extremely thrilled if you're reading this. Thank you very much. I have at least 5 or so more chapters for this story... but I'm going to start to ask a question now... You see I wrote two endings for this story. And as we progress I would love to know which one people would rather read... Quite simply, one she stays, one she goes back. If you write a review let me know which you think would be more interesting, or e-mail me. _

_Enjoy the show poppets._

Chapter 6

Serena was sitting on her bed in the girl's room, far too frightened to go downstairs. Lily and everyone else had already left for home, and before she had left, right before she went out the door, Lily had laid one hell of a surprise on her. Her and Sirius were both staying over the holidays. Granted they wouldn't be alone, there were a couple of younger Gryffindors, and a few others from other houses, but the idea of not having Lily or Remus as a buffer to Sirius was absolutely frightening.

Taking a few deep breaths, and realizing that she couldn't live up in her bed for the whole time, Serena descended the stairs, hoping that he wasn't going to be in the common room. Of course her wishes weren't to come true, since he was lounged across the couch, reading a book and unaware completely that she had come down.

She took advantage of his distraction and started to sneak slowly to the doorway.

"As of yet, you haven't got the ninja like stealth down yet."

She winced and stopped. "Hello Sirius. Staying for the holidays as well? Isn't that nice. Well I have to go now. I'll see you around." She waved and practically dove out the doorway.

Sirius sat up and looked at the exit thoughtfully.

"Definitely needs to work on that stealth thing."

At that moment Serena was taking a few deep breaths on the other side of the exit, already beating herself up about the fact that she couldn't even manage to be in the same room with Sirius alone without panicking. This was going to make the next week difficult. Sighing, she trudged to the library to try and actually get some work done. There was nothing she could work for toward her plan, not with Peter and the Slytherins home for the vacation. She wished that Sirius had gone as well...

Avoiding the Gryffindor area was most important in her mind, so Serena managed to stay in the library all the way until night fall, and even then she didn't want to go back yet. But sadly the rules told her that she had to get back in the common room, since she couldn't walk the halls too late at night.

Reluctantly she walked up to the Fat Lady and gave the season's password "Happy Festivus"

"Happy Festivus to you as well dear." She smiled and swung open, allowing Serena entrance to the common room. She poked her head in carefully, looking for Sirius, and smiled when she didn't spot him.

"Hello Serena."

She jumped a foot forward, before she realized it was just one of the sixth year students who was also staying for the holiday. She couldn't remember his name, which apparently showed on her face.

"Brad Simmons." He grinned from his place at the table, where he appeared to be working hard on some homework. "You wouldn't happen to be any good at Potions would you...?" He grinned even wider as he asked this, showing that he knew quite well that she was good at the subject.

Serena smiled though, and went over to sit next to him, peering over his shoulder at the paper he was writing, or at least trying to. Her plan had been to go up to her bedroom, to avoid Sirius completely, but she wanted some human contact and helping with homework was something she did well enough.

"I'm second only to Lily in Gryffindor for the subject." Serena smiled brightly at the boy, who blinked at her in a bit of surprise, his cheeks going slightly pink "Are you doing a paper on the Fractonius Potion?" At his nod, she pulled his book closer and started to explain in great detail what he needed to know about the potion itself.

When Sirius walked into the common room, a while later he was greeted with the sight of Serena pointing to something and laughing with a boy... Brad something, who was a year behind them. Considering she had successfully avoided him all day, including missing all the meals, he wasn't exactly overjoyed to see her socializing with someone else. It would be one thing if she was avoiding everyone else, but it rubbed him the wrong way that it was just him she was doing it to.

"Sirius! How are you? You should come over here. Serena was just helping me with my potions work... It's only us three in the house over the holidays... The other couple of Gryffindors who were going to stay ended up going home with friends. We'll end up seeing lots of each other for the next week."

Sirius walked over, and didn't imagine the groan he heard from Serena at the boy's last comment. He narrowed his eyes at her, and she never once looked up, concentrating on the page she was reading.

"Yeah it'll be... fun. Won't it 'Rena?" Sirius asked softly, ignoring the boy completely. Brad was looking back and forth between the two, noting Sirius' stare, and Serena's obvious avoidance of his eyes. He pushed back his chair to leave, sensing that his presence wasn't necessarily wanted, but Serena's hand clamped on his arm stopped him.

"You don't need to leave..." She whispered, panic building in her voice.

"Of course he doesn't need to." Sirius sighed, he moved round the table and without any notice leaned down and picked up Serena.

"What the Hell!" She started to hit his back, but he ignored it completely. "Let me down NOW Black!"

"I'm sorry Brad... but the two of us have something to discuss. But as she said, you don't have to leave. We'll have to go." He smiled charmingly, as if he didn't have a girl thrown over his shoulder.

Without another word, he turned and left the common room, ignoring the Fat Lady's comments behind him about not being out this late, or of his treatment of a lady.

"Put me down!" Serena bit out, not hitting him anymore since it obviously didn't do anything to the 6 foot man...

"Quiet, or do you want Filch to find you over my shoulder? Just think of the gossip that would cause..."

Serena growled, but went quiet, deathly quiet. Sirius sighed knowing full well the second he put her down, he was likely to be in a lot of pain.

He carried her to the room of requirement, and upon entering found a room with a bed in the corner, roses in vases all around the room.

"Well I didn't need anything like this..." Sirius shook his head, but dumped Serena on the bed. She was looking shocked at the surroundings.

"I am going to kill you..." She growled, starting to get up, but the look on Sirius' face stopped her. He was staring at her, his eyes practically glowing. "You could have just asked to talk to me..." She looked away from his eyes.

"And you would have come up with an excuse, like you've been doing for two months. I'm slightly sick of it. Just be happy I decided to do this over break, and only Brad had to see it." He pulled up a chair from the wall and sat across from where she was sitting on the bed. "Not exactly making me feel better to see you laughing with him, when you run in the opposite direction from me."

"I run from you because I don't like you." There was a distinctive hmph in Serena's voice as she said that, punctuated by the crossing of her arms.

"We wouldn't be here if I actually thought that." Sirius snorted softly. "You had no problems kissing me that one time."

"And then I told Remus I wasn't interested in dating you.."

"Yes. You told him that it was because I was going to use you and dump you like I do with most girls. That I would make a bad boyfriend, obviously, because of that. Except in these last two months I haven't even looked at another girl, I've made it completely clear that I AM still interested in you. So your excuse is obviously a lie. So I want a valid excuse, or..."

"Or...?" Serena looked up at him, her face wary.

"Or I'll just have to keep you here then." Sirius smiled at her, lights dancing in his eyes. She winced though since she wasn't going to like what he had planned for while they were there. All right so maybe she was going to like what he had planned a little too much.

"I don't suppose you'd just believe me if I said I just don't like you?" She threw that question out there, and wasn't surprised by his definite shake of the head.

"More believable if you hadn't let me kiss you, or avoided me for two months."

"Maybe I just was embarrassed for letting a guy I didn't like kiss me?" Serena smiled up at him. He shook his head again.

"I still don't believe you. Just tell me. Then you can leave..."

Serena sighed, and tapped her fingers thoughtfully against her chin, trying to quickly come up with some explanation for so obviously liking him, but not wanting to date him. He was certainly right though, in the past two months his behaviour had improved. It had happened so quickly that she hadn't even realized that her excuse had gone out the window.

Then there was the truth. Which was also a definite no. Even if he did perhaps believe her story of time travel, the problems would arise immediately when he wanted to know what was going to happen. So what else was there? She couldn't use the old fall back of saying she liked someone else. The only believable one had been Remus, and she had used up that excuse already, he wouldn't believe it again. Then there was always the other obvious answer. That she did like him... the problem coming from that though was a purely personal one.

Sirius said calmly in his chair watching the girl so obviously to scheme he way out of this, trying to come up with other excuses, and he was surprised at his own calm. He had been burning up from the inside for the last two months, wanting to find out exactly what was going on. Tonight he had snapped sure, but he thought he deserved at least a plausible reason for why he was miserable. He smiled as she so thoughtfully chewed on her bottom lip, tugging on a lock of her own hair, completely unaware of him at the moment.

"I don't want to date you, because I'm falling in love with you. And I don't want to fall in love with anyone at this school, because I likely won't see you again after this year."

That was not what Sirius had been expecting, Serena was staring at him purposefully, for once not avoiding his eyes. The way she had been looking, he had been positive she was going to come up with another lame excuse to avoid a relationship. He didn't think she'd actually try the truth, or that it would be something as simple as this. He grinned brightly at her, since she had basically admitted to liking him.

"Don't grin at me like that." Serena huffed. "I just turned you down again."

"No you didn't." Sirius leaned forward. "You said you were falling in love with me. That means you can go out with me."

"I said no." Serena muttered.

"So you don't think you'll see me again, for whatever reasons are in your head. I'm saying that I don't really care at all. I only want you. You said you're falling in love with me. I'm telling you that I think I AM in love with you. At least that's what James thinks when I explain to him that I think about you all the time, I'm always looking at you, and my heart actually hurts when you so obviously aren't talking to me." Sirius paused, a roguish smile sliding on his lips. "James said that's how he felt about Lily. So I guess I am in love with you."

Serena stared at Sirius, her eyes wide, not knowing how to answer that. But her body moved before she could say or think anything. She leaned forward and brushed her lips against Sirius', her mind exploding at the taste of mint on her lips.

When she pulled away, Sirius stared at her, surprised at her action, but soon enough a slow grin spread itself over his lips. He reached out and pulled her back again, making the kiss deeper, longer. When he finally let go, Serena's eyes were glazed and she was sure her lips were going to be swollen.. Her tongue practically burnt with the taste of mint.

"I... I didn't mean to do that." Serena shook her head, her mind still fuzzy, her stomach doing turns.

"Of course not..." Sirius smirked. "Did you know you taste like vanilla?"

"I think it's the vanilla candies I suck on all the time... You though taste like mint, noticed that the first time..." Serena said unthinkingly, and blushed a pale pink. "I'm not kidding though. I didn't mean to do that. "

"Mint eh?" Sirius looked thoughtful, seemingly ignoring everything she was saying.

"Would you please pay attention!" Serena jumped up, her eyes throwing daggers and the raven haired man, lounging in the chair now. "I can not have a relationship with anyone, especially with you."

He looked up at her calmly, the kiss pushing his worry out of his mind. "Fine. You don't want a long lasting relationship because you'll be leaving. So why can't we enjoy each others company while you're here?" He suggested this, since if this worked he could use the time together to convince her to stay, or at least keep up their relationship if even from a distance.

"It'll hurt to much when I leave..." Serena said softly, looking down at the floor.

"Won't you regret it if you don't?" Sirius asked sensibly.

"Since when did you become an expert in real relationships?" Serena asked, sounding annoyed with all the twists and turns Sirius was making around her arguments.

"I'm most certainly not. I'm just saying what I want." He took her hands and pulled her down to sit on his lap, and nuzzled her neck gently. "You're a smart girl. If I could figure out that my feelings aren't going away, you should be able to realize it as well."

She was deadly quiet, but then it was hard to concentrate when Sirius' lips were playing across the skin on her neck. He was certainly right for once, the feelings weren't going to go anywhere. When she left she was going to regret it no matter what happened. So thinking sensibly suggested that there really was no reason to not enjoy herself while she was there.

"You know I absolutely hate it when you're right." Serena sighed.

"Well it doesn't really happen too often, so I have to enjoy it when it does." Sirius smiled triumphantly at her, realizing that he had finally broken through the walls. "Now, you're not going to come up with anymore stupid excuses are you?"

"They weren't stupid." Serena huffed, though she had wrapped her arms around Sirius' neck, and was busy letting her own lips wander over his neck now. "They were perfectly understandable... to a normal person. You just can't be normal can you?"

"I hope I'm never normal." He shivered as her lips worked on his neck. "Now this will make my holiday far more enjoyable."

Serena pulled away and narrowed her eyes at him. "Did you stay behind just to ambush me?"

"Well it was hard to do it when you were hiding behind Lily or Remus." Sirius' smile was trying to be innocent, but never fully accomplished it. Serena snorted.

"So you pulled me into the room of requirements." She looked at the bed blandly. "What exactly were you 'requiring' for a bed and roses to appear?"

"Ah well..." Sirius laughed. "I didn't require this. When I came here I was thinking that I needed just a place to sit and talk." He peered at her suspiciously. "What were YOU thinking of when we got here?"

Serena blinked, and suddenly turned a bright shade of red. Remembering back to it, she had been secretly thrilled that Sirius was taking action, and her brain had worked up a feverish fantasy of him, a bed, and a bunch of roses. She didn't think that had translated into a requirement though.

"Well well well..." Sirius chuckled. "I wonder if it was actually me that was going to be seduced tonight."

She smacked him lightly. "It's not my fault the room doesn't know the difference between a fantasy and a requirement!"

"Fantasy eh?" Sirius' smile grew wider, and he moved to kiss her again, but she jumped off his lap. He looked disappointed, but the smile stayed where it was.

"I'm still put out with you for treating me like a sack. And in front of someone else as well. Everyone's going to hear about that when they get back."

"Hell I'm proud of that, I'll probably be the one to tell everyone." Sirius ducked the pillow that came flying at his head. "What? I was all manly and took control of the situation." This time he wasn't fast enough and the pillow smacked him in the face.

"Manly eh? More like a dog marking his territory."

Sirius immediately went still, and Serena gasped softly realizing the slip after she had said it.

"What do you mean a dog?" He had recovered first, and was letting her explain what she said But at her expression he narrowed his eyes. "How did you find out?"

Serena sighed, and sat back down on the bed. "Now you can't be angry with me..." Looking at Sirius' face though proved that it was highly likely he was going to get angry. "You said it yourself, I'm not stupid. Did you think I didn't noticed Remus getting sick every month around the full moon... And last month I followed you all." At this Sirius hissed sharply, but she kept on. "I saw you all transform into animals. But I didn't tell anyone." This wasn't true, everything she knew came from Harry telling her, but this was a reasonable lie.

Sirius though wasn't listening to the rest of this, he was staring at her angrily. "Are you stupid? Do you realize how dangerous that was? To follow us when Remus was a werewolf? What if he had seen you? When we're animals he doesn't hurt us, and we can control him a bit but even we can't stop his animal instinct to hunt fresh meat when it falls into his lap." He stood up and towered over her. "Never do that again!"

Her eyes were wide, and she couldn't control the tears that were springing up, just from Sirius yelling at her. She hadn't actually followed them, she wasn't that stupid but she couldn't say that. But it still hurt her to have him yell at her, for what would have been her foolishness.

"Ah hell..." Sirius dropped down onto the bed next to her, pulling her into his lap again. "I can't handle tears. I'm not trying to hurt your feelings. I just need you to realize how dangerous that was."

"I know..." Serena squeaked out, her voice muffled against his chest.

"Good then. I never thought for an instant though that you would tell anyone about Remus or us..." He smiled slightly. "Other then Lily you're the only one outside the Marauder's that I would trust to know. Only Snape knows as well." Sirius sighed. "And that was my fault for playing a joke on him last year. James saved his life though. Dumbledore though swore him to secrecy somehow."

Serena peered up at Sirius through her eyelashes, her heart fluttering at hearing him say that he trusted her. A small voice spoke from the back of her mind that part of her plan had been accomplished, she had most of the Marauder's trust. She pushed that down though, since at this moment she didn't want to think about what she had to do.

Sirius glanced down, seeing her peering up at him and grinned, that impish twitch of his lips that she knew now always preceded him leaning down to kiss her.

The two managed to sneak back to the Gryffindor common room, somehow avoiding Filch and his cat, as well as Peeves. Once in the common room, Sirius regarded Serena thoughtfully.

"You're not going to act like none of this happened tomorrow, are you?"

"Would you let me?" Serena asked, a smile tugging at her lips. At Sirius' bright grin and shake of the head she sighed. "Then no, I won't. But only on one condition...?"

Sirius moved closer to her, looking down at her seriously. "Anything."

"Can we go back to the room of requirement tomorrow?" Serena beamed a smile up at him. His laughter burst across the room, likely waking up Brad from his sleep in the boys dorm.

"If you do the requirements again, of course."

Serena went on tiptoes and kissed Sirius soundly.

"Have you realized that you almost always kiss me first?" Sirius grinned, still proud of himself.

"Oh... go to bed." Serena huffed, pushing him to the boy's staircase.

"Good night 'Rena." Sirius called back.

"Good night Padfoot." Serena grinned on her way up her own stairs.

Once she was in her bed, and the glow of had worn off, the realization of what she had done settled on Serena. Sure she was happy with Sirius. She was more then happy, she loved being with him, she was falling in love with him. Truthfully if she was honest, the actual falling had happened long ago. But the fact of the matter was that she didn't belong in this time, and all she was going to gain from this relationship was a thoroughly destroyed heart.

She was happy that Lily wasn't there, because she would have been worried about her friend once again, since another night passed with Serena crying herself to sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N_: _Thank you to everyone who is reading this. This chapter is the fluff chapter, nothing really important happens, just a lot of romantic fluffy goodness :)_

_But once again I need to know which ending I should post here. Should Serena stay or go back? Which one does everyone think would play better? _

_ And of course as always, please review.  
_

Chapter 7

The morning blossomed early for Serena, who woke the instant the light hit her bed. And she spent a good few hours sitting there, silently trying to prepare herself for what she was going to do. She wasn't going to deny Sirius anymore, she had promised him that last night, but even more so she couldn't deny herself him anymore. But that didn't mean she didn't dread seeing him, dread the feelings that grew with each day. She got dressed and tapped her foot testily even thinking about it. By the time she just chose to ignore her feelings on the matter and just enjoy herself, it was already 2pm and she had managed to miss both breakfast and lunch. And of course the second she realized this, her stomach started to growl. She sighed, and went down the stairs, deciding to try and con some food out of the house elves in the kitchen.

When she entered the common room though, Sirius was sitting at the table, a pile of food next to him. He jumped up when she entered, looking thoroughly worried.

"I was almost ready to call McGonagall to go look in on you. The damn protections won't let a boy up into the girl's dorm. I brought food back from both breakfast and lunch, expecting to see you right after each. Are you okay?"

Serena smiled and basically threw herself onto Sirius, kissing him repeatedly.

"I'm fine. I just overslept."

"I was going to ask if things were still good from last night, but I guess I don't have to..." Sirius smirked.

"Thank you for the food." At the mention of food, her stomach rumbled loud enough for him to hear, and Sirius laughed softly, and pushed Serena to the table to eat. Sirius regarded her with interest as she ate. "Happy Christmas Eve by the way..."

"I had almost forgotten." Serena laughed softly. "I've had other things on my mind." Sirius rose an eyebrow at this, but she ignored that.

"Does that mean I don't get a present?" He asked, pretending to be hurt.

"I bought presents for everyone." Serena huffed. "Though maybe yours isn't really suitable anymore..." She smirked thinking about the book she had gotten him about creating your own girlfriend. It was a joke book she had picked up at Zonko's the last Hogsmeade visit. Even not talking to him, she had thought it was the perfect joke gift to give him. "I'll think of something a bit better." She beamed a smile at him.

"Ooh..." He wiggled his eyebrows at her for that comment. "My present was always suitable on the other hand." She looked at him curiously, but he just tapped her nose and shook his head. "You can get it tomorrow. But you can have this now." He leant in and gave her a quick kiss on the tip of her nose. Her nose wrinkled in response.

"That tickled."

"You're so cute though." Sirius shook his head in amazement, Serena though snorted in disbelief. She pushed back her hair, which was falling into her face again.

"Everyone says I'm cute." She muttered this, since for all her life that had been the only thing people had ever said about her. That and she had strange eyes.

"Would you prefer you're drop dead gorgeous and I would like to jump you right now, tear off your clothes and ravish you on this very table?" Sirius asked seriously.

Brad chose that exact moment to walk into the common room, but he stopped in midstep. "Um... I have... work to do. Bye..." He turned around and left immediately.

"Oh god, more gossip..." Serena buried her face into her hands, her face bright red.

"Well I didn't actually DO that, mores the pity." Sirius sighed, sounding really sad, that Serena peeked through her fingers to look at him, only to see a big smile on his face

"Honestly..."

"I was being honest actually. Want to see?" He leaned forward and kissed her softly, not the ravishment he had threatened. "I do think you're gorgeous though... whatever you might think about yourself."

"Th- Thank you." Serena swallowed hard after that kiss, her blush deepening from the compliment.

"Being your first official day as my girlfriend, I think we need to go do something." He pulled her out of her seat, and holding her hand started to pull her out of the room. Her heart warmed at being called his girlfriend.

"I'm not sure I want to be called your girlfriend." Serena joked. This caused the man in front of her to stop suddenly and look at her strangely. "Well all your other girlfriends only last a week or two. I think the term is cursed for you." He grinned at that.

"Okay. How about emotional sex toy?" At her withering look he shook his head. "I suppose not then. Then how about I don't call you anything?" She grinned at him. "But you ARE my girlfriend." He grinned and pulled her out of the room. He was certainly showing a boyish enthusiasm that she couldn't really argue with.

She was subsequently pulled over the castle and shown all of Sirius' favorite spots to escape from teachers. Serena's face though stayed a bright red. Mainly due to the fact that every time they met anyone, ghost, student or teacher, Sirius would proudly declare that Serena was his girlfriend, but then in a stage whisper tell the person she didn't like that term... but that she was anyway. McGonagall's reaction had been amusement at Sirius' behaviour.

"Mr. Black. I'm really thrilled that you managed to find a girlfriend with a brain between her ears."

"You know, all my past ones were students. You just insulted students." Sirius proclaimed proudly, grinning at his favourite teacher. Her face stayed calm though, except for the slightest twitch at her lips.

"Anyway... Your grades had improved over the last few months of not having a relationship. Try not to go back to disappointing us all again."

"Don't worry Professor. I'll make sure he does even better now." Serena smiled at her teacher who nodded happy at that. Sirius though looked worried.

"God, she controls me already. Next thing you know and I might even be in the library." Sirius moaned theatrically, and this time it was Serena who pulled, smiling at Professor McGonagall as they went past.

When they met Headmaster though, Serena tensed at Sirius' proclamation. She wasn't sure how he would react to this news. After all he was the one who knew that she was from the future. How would he like her dating someone from this time period, knowing she was going back home? Dumbledore looked at Serena carefully, before patting Sirius on the shoulder.

"Good luck. Happy Christmas." He smiled and moved past them.

"Good luck?" Sirius looked confused. "Does no one think I can actually keep you as a girlfriend?"

Serena smirked slightly at that, since she was pretty sure that was the common opinion among most of the students who had witnessed her behaviour toward him the last two months. Even though she knew well enough that hadn't been what Dumbledore had really meant.

"Don't worry hun. I'm sure you'll do fine. You're just going to have to change your entire way of dealing with women." She shrugged, like this would be absolutely no problem for him.

"I suppose that's true." He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I guess, technically speaking this is my first real relationship. All the others were just for sex."

Serena narrowed her eyes at him, and released his hand. "There's no need to mention your vast sexual experience."

He grabbed her hand again though and grinned. "Just saying is all. And believe me, you'll be thankful for the experience." He pulled her closer, breathing those last words against her mouth. She pushed him away, laughing softly.

"That was such a cheesy line..." She shook her head. "Like you're going to get a chance to show me anytime soon, anyway." She started to walk off, with Sirius following after, whining about that last statement.

The next morning, Serena woke up early and this time bounded down the stairs without even changing out of her pajamas. She found Sirius and Brad, sitting in chairs by the fire. Sirius grinned at her as she entered.

"Well there went all my fantasies about what you wore to bed." Sirius sighed dramatically, gesturing at her cotton plaid pants, and the loose shirt with 'Chudley Cannons' across the front of it. She stuck out her tongue at him, and dropped onto the floor by the fire.

"Good morning Brad. Happy Christmas." She ignored the mutters behind her from Sirius, something about not showing it if you weren't going to use it.

"Morning." He yawned then but she thought he had said, "I like the shirt." He then grinned at her. "We waited for you to come down before we opened our Christmas presents. Make it more homey to do it all together."

Serena blinked at him, not expecting any presents. Sirius nudged her with his foot and pointed to the pile on one side of his armchair.

"Did you think your friends weren't going to get you anything?" Sirius smiled, shaking his head. He grabbed his own presents and started to open them. Brad it seemed was doing the same, Serena reached for her small pile, happy though to have any at all. The first was surprisingly from Peter, and was a box of every flavour jelly beans. She felt a bit bitter about getting a present from someone she knew was going to betray her friends, but she shook it off knowing that at this moment he hadn't done anything wrong. The idea floated into her head that maybe she could help change him before he made the mistake.

The next present was from James, and had a box of filibuster fireworks, and a pair of joke glasses that made the person's eyes seem ten times the size they were. Sirius laughed at her as she put them on, so she took them off quickly enough.

"Your friends certainly like useless gifts." The thought made her smile, useless presents were still presents her friends had taken the time to get her.

"To James, jokes are never useless." Sirius grinned and showed her his present from James, a complete set of realistic looking puke that did nothing for her empty stomach.

"Delightful..."

She opened her next present from Remus, and was pleased to find something that she could finally use. It was a good set of ink and quills, with charmed paper that wouldn't get wet. Trust Remus to give her something she would actually use.

Her last present was from Lily. It was a beautiful off the shoulder sweater in black. Sirius whistled when he saw it. She stuffed it back in it's box, and scooted back to rest her back against the chair Sirius was sitting in. He leaned down.

"Can you wear that tonight?" He grinned at the blush that immediately appeared.

"Don't I get a present from you? I gave you one?"

Sirius held up the joke book, and Serena smiled innocently at him.

"Well at the time I bought it, you didn't have a girlfriend… I said it was suitable at the time."

"Of course." Sirius snorted, but flipped through the pages looking almost interested. Serena smacked his leg.

"Don't even think about trying it!"

"Just looking. You did give it to me after all." Sirius said innocently. "As for your gift, you get that tonight."

Serena eyed Sirius suspiciously but decided it was likely best to just ignore him.

After finishing with the presents, the three Gryffindors sallied down to the great hall for Christmas breakfast. Dumbledore had set up one large table for everyone since there were only a handful of students left in the school. The meal consisted of eggs, bacon, toast, christmas pudding, and porridge.

After that, the three of them played some card games, until Brad went off to spend sometime with a friend of his from Ravenclaw. This left Sirius and Serena sitting at the table in their common room alone.

Sirius was shuffling the cards, whistling to himself, trying very hard to act nonchalant. Serena on the other hand was tapping her fingers on the table, trying to think of a way of suggesting that they go to the Room of Requirement without sounding too desperate or eager... Just at the point that she thought she could actually say something, Sirius stood up suddenly.

"It's about time for dinner." Sirius tilted his head to look at Serena strangely, the look of disappointment on her face must have looked odd indeed.

"Right... of course." She stood up, barely able to control the pout that was on her face. Sirius laughed, seeming to understand what was going on in her head. He reached out and took her hand.

"After dinner I'll give you your present." He said that with such delicious anticipation, that Serena shivered and nodded, her disappointment gone in a flash.

In the great hall, once again there was only one large table for the staff and students who were staying in the school. Other then Dumbledore, most of the staff was there for the holidays, except Slughorn. Serena didn't doubt that he was probably spending the vacation with an old student of his that was head of the ministry, or a rock star or something. The two Gryffindors came in together pretty much after everyone else had been seated. Brad though waved for them to come over to where he was sitting next to a rather pretty girl from Ravenclaw, it was not surprising that he had gone to spend time with her. He had saved them both seats next to him. Serena watched, rather amused as Sirius immediately made a beeline for the seat next to Brad. She doubted it was due to his friendship with the younger student, probably instead due to the looks even she had noticed from him.

On everyone's plate were Christmas crackers, and before dinner was even started everyone pulled their crackers. Sitting next to Serena was Professor McGonagall who pulled on her cracker and got the good half, but was nice enough to let Serena have the contents. The younger girl wasn't surprised, since out popped a large clown's hat and a very gaudy set of purple jewelry. The idea of seeing her teacher in that would have caused fits of laughter. Having no such compunctions herself though, Serena quickly put the hat and jewelry on. She turned to Sirius and nearly fell out of her seat from laughing. He was wearing a large cowboy hat, bright pink in colour, and a pair of ridiculous comedy sunglasses shaped like rainbows.

"I don't know..." Serena breathed out, trying to control her laughter. "If I can... date you anymore..." The laughter was getting harder since now Sirius was looking confused. "I'm never going to get this image out of my head." He huffed audibly, and tugged on a lock of her hair from under her clown hat.

"But you're so much more attractive with that hat on..." He smirked as she stuck her tongue out at him. "Though I think you might need some new jewelry."

Dumbledore clapped his hands, and everyone turned to him, tittering quietly since their Headmaster was wearing a woman's large brimmed hat. "Now that everyone is festively dressed..." He eyed Professor McGonagall and flipped his wand in her direction, causing the sudden appearance of a police man's hat on her head. She didn't look too amused, but Dumbledore ignored her fierce look and smiled. "Right, now that everyone is festively dressed, Time to eat!" He clapped his hands, and suddenly there was a feast in front of everyone.

Serena grinned and as eagerly as everyone else put herself to the task of eating as much food on Christmas as was possible. By the end of the night everyone was thoroughly stuffed, and red in the face from laughing as much as they did. It was probably the best Christmas she had ever had. That thought caused a slight twinge of guilt in her though, shouldn't her best Christmas have been with her family, in her time? Or the Christmas she had spent with Harry, Hermione and Ron before things were bad? She sighed softly, but Sirius still turned to look at her concerned. She smiled at him, perhaps a bit weakly, but enough to cover the sigh, and leaned in to him.

"Time for my present?"

He looked at her for a moment, judging her mood from that sigh, but a small grin twitched at his lips, and he nodded. Everyone else was already excusing themselves from the dinner, so they didn't look too strange getting up together, practically running from the room together.

Serena wasn't surprised when she was brought straight to the room of requirement. Sirius looked at her sternly though.

"Now keep the fantasies out of your head. I want this to be my requirement now." Serena blushed slightly nodding her head, trying to empty her mind of all the fantasies that were always floating in there whenever she was with Sirius.

He grinned at her determined look and took her hand, opening the door to what Serena could only describe as a mini jungle.

"It's an atrium!" Sirius announced proudly. "I wasn't sure if the room would be able to handle an odd requirement like mine, but surprisingly when I opened the door this was here. It was perfect too." He grinned and pulled Serena into his arms, hugging her tightly. "Look..." He pulled her after him, she was laughing at his behavior. He pulled her to a mini waterfall and pond, where a blanket was set up next to it. She was immediately pulled down to sit next to it. She looked up and was amazed to see there was no ceiling at all, but the clear sky was showing the stars glittering above them.

"Isn't it great?" Sirius looked proud of himself but he still looked at Serena eagerly. She grinned and crawled into his lap, kissing his cheek fondly.

"Best Christmas present ever."

Sirius looked even more overjoyed with himself, and hugged her tightly. But Serena found herself feeling depressed once again, and was horrified to feel tears coming to her eyes. She couldn't help but remember her last Christmas with her old friends, they had all gone to stay at the Burrows, the Weasley family home. Ron, Ginny and the twins had taken everyone to a special spot they had located only recently back behind a waterfall, near a lake. Together everyone had a party by that lake. She had thought that was the best Christmas ever. Now here she was, twenty years in the past, to save all her friends, and instead she was falling in love with Harry's godfather, on Christmas, and thinking this was the best Christmas ever.

"What's wrong?"

Serena shook her head. "I was just thinking about my last Christmas with Harry..." She didn't imagine the cold glint that entered Sirius' eyes. She shook her head even more emphatically now, reaching up to touch Sirius' cheek. "He was my friend, one of my best friends."

Sirius, wiped the tears of her cheek that had escaped her eyes, and looked concern. "Was?"

She laughed, almost bitterly, well he hadn't been born yet so he wasn't her friend at this period.

"Never mind all this depressing talk." She kissed Sirius' softly. "I'm ruining your Christmas present."

"This isn't my present." Sirius shook his head. He pulled a small box out of his robes and handed it to Serena, looking doubtful as she opened it, and looking even more worried when she looked quizzically at the small ring box in her hand. When she opened it, it showed a very simple silver band. Picking it out of the box, Serena looked closely at it, seeing the fine vines embedded in the surface, and on the inside saw the inscription 'Wherever, I follow'.

She looked up at him in question. Sirius held up his own right hand, which had a slightly larger band which matched hers. "They're a set... You'll always be able to find the person who's wearing the pair... No matter where they are. Do you like it?"

Serena slipped the ring on, which fit perfectly, and then promptly burst into tears, throwing herself on Sirius.

"None of the times I practiced giving you that, did I think about you crying..." Sirius said, half amused and concerned.

"Sorry..." Serena sniffed. "I'm just thinking about... things." In truth she was thinking that by the end of the year she wouldn't even be here anymore, and when she returned to her time there was no guarantee that Sirius would even still be alive, not to mention he would be Harry's Godfather, and not to mention over 20 years older then her. What good was the ring going to be then?

"About Harry...?" Sirius tried to hide the jealousy out of his voice, but he couldn't get rid of it completely. "I'm sure wherever he is, he's doing fine."

Serena smiled slightly, still clinging to him. "I love you." She felt him tense at this declaration. She pulled back to look at him, and grinned at the incredibly stupid looking smile that was on his face.

"That was your Christmas present... and this." She smiled and kissed him softly.

"Definitely the best Christmas present." Sirius breathed once the kiss had ended.

"I thought you'd like it." She grinned and nuzzled his neck. "So..."

"So...?" Sirius grinned at her, nudging her in the side.

"Just wondering... Do you give all your girlfriends matching rings? If I go into your room, I'm not going to find a drawer filled with old rings...?" She asked jokingly. He snorted in reply.

"If you must know... I've never spent Christmas with a girlfriend, never even had one over the holidays. So no... I don't have a drawer of old rings. I've never given a girl a Christmas present before. Except Lily of course, but she's my mate's girl..."

Sirius squeaked (much like a girl Serena couldn't help noticing) when she jumped on him again, toppling him to the ground this time.


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: Continued thanks to everyone who is still reading this. Almost at the end... Well sort of. After all I do have TWO endings. She stays.. She goes... Whichever one should I post? Who knows... Naturally I think the common response is to post both of them. _

**_Olifantje-emma: _**_I am very, very happy that you like the story. Thank you for the review! That part with Sirius being serious (ah the puns...) was one of my favourite parts as well. I hope you continue to read and enjoy_

_**Linac428: **Once again thank you for another review ;) Yes, everyone wants both. I might do both. Which though do you think would be MORE interesting? _

_ Don't forget to review people. It makes a writers day :) We just live for the stuff!_

Chapter 8

When the rest of the school came back to start the new term, it was to find plenty of stories about what Sirius and Serena had been up to while they were gone.

Lily and Remus were surprised, if pleasantly. James on the other hand just nodded as if he had known, which hadn't gotten a good reaction for Lily.

"He told me what he was planning before... and he sent me a letter to tell me it had worked out well."

"And you didn't tell me?" Lily was annoyed, and ignored James who was trying to apologize. Sirius and Serena were amused. For her own part, Serena had forgotten to send a letter to her friend, but didn't think she would blame her. That honour was going to James, and apparently Sirius, who was now getting the third degree from Lily for not letting her know.

"So I've heard some interesting stories already." Remus said softly from Serena's side. "Is it true he threw you over his shoulder and carried you out of the common room?"

Her face a bright red, Serena shook her head. "I can't believe Brad told everyone!"

Once again entering the conversation Sirius threw an arm around his girlfriend's shoulder and announced proudly that it had been he who had told everyone that story. He gave a loud groan at the elbow in his side.

"That is NOT going to get you on my good side." Serena huffed, then smiled at Remus. "Did he tell you the story of how he was skipping in the snow outside and tripped over his own feet and fell face first into the snow, ending up with a bloody nose, and crying like a baby before the nurse could heal it?"

Everyone laughed loudly at this, except for Sirius who was glowering at everyone in hopes to stop them. This only caused them to laugh louder.

"You were skipping!" James bent over, laughing too hard.

"You broke your own nose!" Remus wiped at his eyes. "All the fights you've been in and no one ever did that. Then you do it to yourself!"

This statement caused everyone to start laughing anew. Serena smiled and went on tiptoes to kiss Sirius' cheek. "We laugh because we love you dear." This wiped the death look he was shooting Remus clear away, instead his typical grin slipped onto his face. Everyone exchanged looks at this, clearly never seeing Sirius act like this.

"I really never thought I'd see the day that Sirius was in love." Lily mused out loud.

"All the marauders are getting girlfriends. It just leaves me and Moony." Peter whined sullenly. Remus clapped him on the back and assured him that he could come to the library with him to study, this just caused Peter to whine more.

"So in between your likely snog fests with the lovely Serena, did you manage to come up with the greatest prank ever for our final year?" James asked, an eager light in his eyes.

"Actually yes..." Sirius leant down and kissed Serena on the cheek. "I'll see you later. Right now the Marauders need to have a little meeting..." Grinning, the boys followed Sirius out of the room.

"You don't happen to know what he planned do you?" Lily asked, worry on her face as she watched them leave.

"I didn't even realize he was thinking of one at all..." Serena sighed. "I suppose I should have. But he never mentioned anything any of the times I saw him. And there wasn't much time that he was off on his own."

"Spent that much time with him did you...?" Lily looked at Serena sideways, amusement etched on her face.

With the start of the new term, and the school year half over, Serena suddenly started to panic that she had gotten severely sidetracked from her plan. She had been so focused on Sirius, and the rest of her friends, she had not been able to find out anything about Peter, or if in truth he did ever meet any of the future death eaters.

To make up for this, once school started up she almost became fanatical in trying to catch Peter in the act of doing anything that looked wrong or suspicious. She barely got any sleep since she spent most of the night awake, staring at her copy of the Marauder's map, hoping to see the dot that marked Peter, move out of the Gryffindor area.

Sirius became concerned when the normally perfect student dozed off in the middle of their charms class.

"Are you okay...?" Sirius asked, right after Serena had practically collapsed into the seat next to him at dinner.

"I'm fine..." She yawned, and dropped her head onto her arms on the table. "I just haven't been sleeping as well as I would like. I just need some good sleep." She yawned. "In fact I'm just going to grab a sandwich and head off to bed..." She brought her head up and smiled sleepily at Sirius, giving him a quick kiss before grabbing a sandwich and walking back to her bed.

"When I go to sleep, she's usually asleep..." Lily said, confused from across from Sirius. He watched his girlfriend leave dinner with a concerned expression on his face.

While he was concerned for her, he didn't start to get worried until one night he suggested that they spend some alone time together in the room of requirements. Serena had laughed him off, and said she really needed to go to sleep early that night. He couldn't deny that fact since she was obviously sleeping through so many classes. He became worried though when the next day she fell asleep during Defense against the Dark Arts.

Once the class was finished, Sirius grabbed his still sleepy girlfriend's arm and pulled her down the hallway, away from the concerned looks of their friends.

"Is there a reason you're dragging my arm out of its socket?" Serena yawned while asking this. Sirius stopped in a dark corner of the school and turned to her.

"Are you going behind my back and seeing someone else?"

"What?" Immediately Serena was awake. "Where in the hell did that come from?"

"Well it's the only explanation that I can come up with. You didn't want to spend time with me last night, so you could go to bed early. But you obviously didn't sleep since you just fell asleep in class." Sirius raked his hand through his long dark locks, making them more disheveled then before.

"I am not cheating on you." Serena said softly. In her head she was beating herself up over how stupid she had been lately. It had never once occurred to her that anyone would notice her unusual behaviour. She hadn't thought that Sirius would put two and two together and come up with three.

"Then what are you doing?" He asked, hardly convinced.

"I'm..." Serena started to explain herself, but what exactly could she say. Sirius I'm staying up all night following the movements of one of your best friends in the hopes that I see him cavorting with future death eaters, that he will one day tell the whereabouts of your other friends to, therefore causing their deaths, and your imprisonment... "It's none of your business what I'm doing at night!" Serena growled, resorting to a defensive position out of her inability to explain herself. She winced at the hurt look that passed over Sirius' face. "I'm not cheating on you..." She repeated.

"A month ago I would have trusted just you saying that..." Sirius shook his head. "But you're hiding something. If it's not cheating, what is it?"

Serena grew annoyed at his persistance in this even when he knew she didn't want to talk about it. She pushed her hair over her shoulder and narrowed her eyes at the taller Sirius. "I don't have to report everything I do to you, do I?" She turned around and walked away, in her mind she said it was because she was angry with him, but in reality it was so she didn't have to see the heartbroken expression she knew was there...

_A/N: That was shorter then I would normally upload, but once again I am victim to the good chapter break. :)_

_Thanks for reaching the end of the chapter though. Fluffiness is gone from this chapter... _


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N: Another day, another chapter. It's almost finished! Well... sort of... there are two endings after all. Please enjoy this update, and R+R. :)_

Chapter 9

The next day the rest of the Marauder's could only watch as their friend's relationship cracked apart. Serena was stubbornly refusing to tell anyone what was going on, and Sirius was stubbornly refusing to accept that it wasn't something that he should know. Everyone else just stood on the sidelines, but even so, the group started to take sides.

"She should just tell him." James huffed, sick of watching his best friend mope around the common room.

"It's her own business." Lily sighed. "Just because they're dating doesn't mean he has every right to her life, not only after a little over a month of dating."

"She's still acting rather shifty." Peter said suspiciously, looking around for Serena in case she heard him. "She looks at me strangely too..."

"Everyone does that Wormtail." Remus sighed, shaking his head. "All in all, they're both being stubborn, and knowing them both... neither is going to give on this. Sirius won't give until she tells him, and she is not going to." He tapped his fingers on the table, getting rather exasperated with his two friends.

"There really is absolutely nothing we can do either." Lily shook her head.

All four of them sat, getting rather depressed about the entire situation.

Serena meanwhile sat in the library, feeling rather depressed about the situation as well. The only difference was that this just made her even more determined to catch Peter doing something. The problem was there was nothing to grasp at. Even staying up almost the entire night yielded no results. She was becoming desperate, and the only solution she could find for this situation was something she really wanted to avoid. She was going to have to someway find out from the lion's mouth. Peter wouldn't tell her anything since he knew she was friends with the group, but if she could get in good with Malfoy...

She dropped her head onto her book, disgusted at even the thought of pretending to be friends with any Slytherin, especially this one. Not to mention the backlash she would get from everyone when they found out. What Sirius would do...

"Pressure getting to you already Strangeblood?"

Serena straightened up and stared at the object of her thoughts (and disgust). Malfoy stood over her, for once he was even alone. He looked every inch the lord he was, and was looking at her in such a primitive way she shivered.

"Lucius... Just the Slytherin I wanted to talk to." Serena smiled, amazed that she did so without looking like she wanted to throw up. After all there had to be some sign of fate when he came near her just as she was thinking about him...

Malfoy though looked almost surprised at the smile, and polite statement. "You wanted to talk to me...?"

"Well... you're good at the dark arts... and I needed some help on it." Serena practically simpered at him, trying to put on the best show she could possibly do. He narrowed his eyes at her though.

"Why don't you ask one of the deformed four? Or your boyfriend Black...?" He spit out the word boyfriend, and immediately Serena killed the urge to jump up and beat Malfoy for insulting her friends, or Sirius.

"We broke up... and as a result the rest of the group aren't as fond of me..." Serena sighed, not having to fake that. After all it was almost the truth. Sirius and her had for all intensive purposes broken up. He hadn't really spoken to her, except in arguments for a week, and at least half of the Marauders were backing him up.

This seemed to throw Malfoy off, but quickly his usual smarmy smile was back in place and he sat down across from Serena.

"It was about time you realized he was a fundamental waste of time..." Malfoy laughed, and the sound was like nails on a chalkboard for Serena, but she just pretended to laugh with him.

"Yes well... I was hoping you could help me with this paper I have to write on banshees...?" She pointed at her book and smiled at him. He leaned in to look at the book.

"You know for a Gryffindor you're not that bad..." Malfoy smirked. "At least you're not a mugblood, and you learnt your mistake about those losers in your house. We can't fault you for where the hat sorted you..."

Inside all she wanted to do was reach across the table and strangle him, but instead she kept her smile firmly in place. "Yes..." She sighed dramatically. "It would have been nice to be in Slytherin instead. I always thought green was more my colour. And everyone in Gryffindor seems to be useless... Or at least they've all lost their uses to me. I mean Black was fun and all, but he got boring too quickly. The same with the rest of them..." Inside her nausea was rising, and tears were begging to be let out at what she was saying, but she continued on. "None of them have anything useful to give..."

"Well I don't know about that. One of them certainly has proven useful..." Malfoy mused out loud, before grinning rather slimely, reaching out to take a lock of Serena's hair, rubbing it between his fingers. She was going to have to shower when she got back to the dorm... That is if she was even allowed back in. Maybe Gryffindor would feel the betrayal and refuse her entrance.

"Useful really?" She laughed bitterly. "How could any of them be useful?"

"Spies are always useful my dear." Malfoy sneered at something behind her at that point, letting her hair slip through his fingers, she let out a sigh of relief, but the relief disappeared in an instant when she heard someone speak behind her.

"With Malfoy of all people..."

Serena whipped round to stare at Sirius who had the most disgusted expression on his face. Not that she could blame him... if she hadn't been as good an actress, she would have had the same look.

"Sirius..."

He sneered at her, and backed off, turning and walking quickly out of the library.

"The stupid fool..." Malfoy laughed. "Just because most of the girls in this school seem to fall for him he always thought he was so much better. I have to say my dear, you've done what I've always failed to do. Bring Black to his knees..."

Serena tried to force the fake laughter past the tears in her throat, but only half succeeded. "Thank you... I need to pass in an assignment to McGonagall." Quickly she gathered up her things and started to go, but Malfoy's voice stopped her.

"Come and see me at dinner. I'll tell you some things you won't believe." She nodded dumbly and left the library quickly, before her tears could ruin her plan.

She had to be proud of herself, she had to be. After all she had basically made Malfoy tell her that there was a spy in Gryffindor, and she knew it was Peter. None of the others could do it, and she KNEW he was the betrayer in the future. But her heart was a broken mess... But all there was now was to follow through.

When she came back to the common room later, she was practically frozen in spot from the disgusted, cold looks she got when she came in. Even Lily and Remus looked like she was a vampire...

"It's too bad you can't switch houses..." James sneered at her. "You would fit so nicely in with the Slytherins."

She looked around, wide eyed at all her old friends, and her heart broke all over again. But this was to save them all, as well as her future friends. She spotted Sirius in the corner, avoiding looking at her like his life depended on it.

"I can't believe I actually stood up for you." Lily spat out, looking furious. Never since she had been here had she seen her look this upset. "I said you weren't cheating... I swore you weren't. And to find out this. I don't want to even sleep in the same room as you."

Serena looked back and forth from James to Lily, tears welling up in her eyes, despite her resolve to keep them away.

"I feel guilty..." Remus said quietly, he sat near Sirius in an armchair. "I shouldn't have tried to get you two together. I should have realized from the beginning what you were like..." He kept his eyes down as he said this.

Only Peter and Sirius hadn't said anything yet. Peter didn't look like he was about to, practically looking frightened at his surrounding at the moment. Sirius though still wouldn't look at her, but she noticed that his right hand was bare, the ring gone from it. This broke her firm resolve and the tears spilt forth.

"You fools!" She tried to wipe the tears away. "You don't know what I have to do! You can't know... I can't tell any of you! But you're all so quick to think the worst of me! I wish I was back home with my friends! They would never..." Her voice broke and she shook her head, running out of the common room, back into the castle.

An air of guilt hung over the group left in the common room.

"Do you think maybe... we jumped to a conclusion?" Lily said softly, breaking the silence that had fallen over everyone.

"You didn't see her with Malfoy... smiling and letting him touch her hair..." Sirius said gruffly, his voice thick with emotion.

"But...:" Remus shook his head. "That reaction was real... You know it was. There's a part of this story that we're all missing. She made it sound like she had to do this... This connects back to her lack of sleep I think." He passed his hand over his face. "I feel like I just betrayed one of my friends."

"Maybe we should look for her then?" James surprised everyone suggesting this. After all he had been the quickest to turn against her. At their looks he shrugged. "I feel bad... I don't think she faked those tears. But I would like to know why she was even sitting near Malfoy." He turned to his best friend. "Well Padfoot?"

"Of course I want to find her..." He muttered. "You think I didn't know those were real tears. But I think it wouldn't be a good idea to see her right now...She ran out of here in tears... Do you think she wants to see any of us right now?"

The group all shook their heads, staying where they were despite their feelings against it. Sirius excused himself from the room and went up to his bed, grabbing his ring off his table and slipping it back on, feeling guiltier then before at having even taken it off. He tried to use it to find where she was in the castle, but he felt nothing.

"Damn... she took it off..." He buried his face in his pillow as the bitter voice in the back of his head. _'Why would she have kept it on? You took yours off...'_

He stuck his head under the pillow, in hopes of closing out the voice, but it didn't work.


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: Ooohh... This is the LAST chapter... well sort of. After this it's the ending. Just need to decide which one I'll upload. . . . . Who am I kidding really... I'll upload both of them. I just need to decide which one to do first._

_Thanks to everyone who read this... and the few who reviewed. I love you all (all few of you...heh) _

Chapter 10

Serena didn't show up for dinner, and in the morning Lily came down to the common room, worried that her bed hadn't been slept in at all.

"She's been out all night." Lily wrung her hands in worry. "With Filch and Mrs.Norris out there, she could seriously get into trouble. Not to mention it's just not good... to be gone this long."

"She'll probably be at class. She can't miss those..." James said, not entirely convinced. Sirius stayed quiet in the background, his mind going into overdrive worrying about Serena.

The first class of the day was Charms, which saw all the Marauders in their seats before class had even started, looking around for Serena, but once the class started she still hadn't shown.

"Where is Miss Strangeblood?" The Professor asked, looking at the Gryffindor contingent looking incredibly worried.

"She's sick sir..." Lily burst out, not wanting to get Serena into trouble by saying she was missing.

"Well she had better see the nurse. Make sure she gets the homework."

The rest of the day passed much the same, with Serena missing the classes and the Marauder's lying, saying she was ill. The excuse was only going to work for a day or two.

"We need to find her before she gets into serious trouble." Remus said, worry etched onto his face.

"Can't you find her with your rings Padfoot?" James said, eyeing the ring on Sirius' right hand.

"She's taken hers off..." He whispered, still angry with himself for having done the same, if even for a few hours.

"Boys... What about that precious map of yours?" Lily asked calmly, looking at them like they should have remembered that. They all looked at her suspiciosuly.

"How did you know...?" James asked tentatively.

"Like I wouldn't know about that... But who cares. It shows everyone right? So she should be on it... As long as she's still on school grounds." Lily looked slightly concerned at her own last statement.

Immediately Sirius ran and got the map, pulling it out and with a quick 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good', started to look it over.

"She's not on here!" He said, panic in his voice.

"She's not in the Slytherin area rooms then?" James said, his face firm. At their looks he just shook his head. "Well if she had been dating Malfoy she would have run away to there right?"

"She's not there." Peter said suddenly, drawing all their looks to him. He hadn't even been looking at the map and still he had answered. He winced. "I mean... I heard Malfoy talking to Snape in the hallway. He was complaining that his latest catch had run away from him... I assumed it was Serena."

"I don't know where she is then..." Sirius said, exhaustion in his voice. Now he was at a loss for what to do.

At that moment Serena was asleep on Professor Slughorn's couch. She didn't know how she had ended up there. When she had run out of the Gryffindor common room, she hadn't had a definite flight path. She had thought at first she should go to McGonagall, but she knew her head of house would have told her rather sensibly to go back to the dorm and deal with her friends, the same had gone for Dumbledore. Even worse there was that Dumbledore might have guessed what she was trying to do if he had heard the story. So instead, after wandering all night she had ended up at Professor Slughorn's. He was the only other professor she thought might help her out. After all she was Lily's friend, and exceptionally good at Potions. These were things that had endeared her to the Slytherin head of house. She had given him a shortened version of what had happened. And rather surprisingly immediately he had offered to let her stay on his couch. He had said that in situations like these some distance was usually best. Yet being at school didn't afford many chances to get away.

Slughorn was exactly as he had been in the future. He wanted the students to like him, even if it meant bending the rules for them. Or at least for the students that he WANTED to like him. In her old time he hadn't given two hoots for her, that was until she had started to be friends with Harry. Then of course she was worth his notice, that and her ability in most of her subjects.

She spent the entire day asleep on his couch, shrugging off his attempts to get her to eat. Her stomach didn't feel like food, it couldn't when it was turned upside down. She knew she had to get up and follow through with her plan, but it was taking a while to get her body moving. The only thing she had energy for was to set up a simple cloaking spell around herself for a short period of time. She didn't want anyone to find her... and with certain objects like the original version of the map she carried, she could be found too easily. Though it was certainly doubtful they would try.

"Professor. Thank you for letting me stay here for the day." Serena smiled as Slughorn came back at the end of the day. "I think I need to go though..." She wasn't going to go back to the Gryffindor area... She was going to finish her plan.

"Well you're welcome my dear. But I have to say, I think your friends are worried about you. When I asked where you were, Lily immediately lied and said you were sick. If she hated you like you said she would have said you were skipping."

This made Serena pause, but she shook it off. "Thank you again Professor. You're certainly my favourite teacher now." Flattery always got you everywhere with Slughorn..

"Oh, my... that's nice of you. You'll have to come to our Slug Club party..."

"I'd be delighted. Bye." She waved and exited the room, immediately holing herself up in the room of requirements. The room was empty except for a bed in the corner. Her only requirement was not being found, so what else was she supposed to need. She dropped onto the bed and pulled out the marauder's map, and found Peter on it quickly enough. He was in the common room, surrounded by all her other former friends. She needed to finish this soon. In her hand she clutched the ring Sirius had given her, having taken it off right after she had ran out the other night.

If things would just for once work for her instead of against, then she could be home soon. Though the question was if she even wanted to go home... but with things as they were now she had no choice. She couldn't live in the past forever.

Later, as if her wish had been granted by a higher being, Serena watched as the dot that was marked as Peter Pettigrew, left the Gryffindor area and headed down the hallways of the castle, until he was in the deep dungeon areas of the school. She saw quickly enough that Sirius, and the others were in their dorms, though Sirius' dot was still awake, pacing from the looks of it. She ignored that though, and grabbing her invisibility cloak, and the map, she ran out of the room to follow Peter.

She came upon him quickly enough in one of the hallways, looking around to make sure he wasn't being followed. He obviously didn't have the map, since he would have been able to tell easily enough that he was being followed. She waited a short while to see where he was going, and once she spotted the dots marked for Malfoy, Snape, and various other people she knew as future death eaters, Serena did something she had been avoiding all day.

She slipped on the ring, and tried to use it for it's original purpose. To make Sirius find her...

She was happy, and worried at the same time when she watched as Sirius' dot start to move at a phenomenal rate down the hallways and stairs of the castle. She wondered briefly if he was in his dog form, and she grimaced as she saw exactly that coming down the hallway. Luckily they were a ways away from the Slytherin group, otherwise everyone would have heard him.

She threw off the cloak and stood in front of him to make him stop. He came to a halt immediately, changing into his human form in an instant, and before she could say anything, she was in a tight hug.

"You... We've all been so damned worried about you. Where have you been?" His voice was thick with emotion and he placed her away from him to look at her angrily, though she saw enough tenderness in his eyes.

For a moment she forgot why he was there.

"You.. You all accused me of cheating with Malfoy. You have no right to have been worried about me!" She said angrily, shaking her head.

"So we're all stupid fools. Okay? You didn't exactly explain well, and we jumped to conclusions. But damn it Serena... I love you. You were letting Malfoy near you, to even touch you. Why?"

That brought Serena out of her daze, and she grabbed Sirius and pulled him along with her. "Quiet. I'll show you something. The thing I've been working on all those nights, why I was getting on Malfoy's good side. But you HAVE to be quiet." She held onto his hand and pulled the cloak over both of them, and brought the map out again.

"How..." Sirius, looked at her surprise in his eyes. "Is this James'..?"

"No it's my map and my cloak..." Serena shushed him then, and rather obediently he went quiet, the desire to know what she had been doing outweighing his curiosity over the map.

Quietly they crept into the room, where Serena knew Peter was selling out his supposed friends. Inside she found the group lazing about, as Peter talked to Malfoy, a rather rushed quality to his voice. Serena clamped her hand over Sirius' mouth when he saw Peter, immediately assuming that his friend was in trouble.

"She hasn't come back to our common room. None of us know where she is." Peter whined out, trying to be important for Malfoy who just stuck his nose up at him.

"Well I want to know where she is the minute you find her. She's of interest to me. And the Dark Lord would certainly be happy with having a good spy among the Gryffindors."

"What about me?" Peter asked concerned. "I'm a good spy! None of them even suspect me. The only one who's looked at me oddly has been that Strangeblood."

"That's because she smarter then you, you're just a rat." Malfoy sneered at Peter. "We use you because we can, but you're essentially useless. The only good you bring us is your ties to those other fools. Just keep on their good sides until we need you to be more then just a spy for us."

Serena felt Sirius' body tense when he heard Peter's confession, and then she felt the overwhelming amount of anger and fury radiating from him. It was all she could do to keep him under control. If she let him stay there for another second he would tear out from under the cloak and kill Peter, and then likely get himself killed. She pulled him back out of the room, though it was hard enough. Once she was sure they were far enough away, she let him go, and slid the cloak off, looking up at him expectantly.

"That RAT!" Sirius exploded, and Serena winced, hoping they were actually far enough away. "I am going to kill him... He was our friend." He stepped forward, to head back to where Malfoy and Peter were, but Serena in his path stopped him.

"You can't kill him." She shook her head, knowing that he could indeed do it. But she also knew he would seriously regret it afterwards. There would be no proof that Peter had done anything, it would have just been a death. And then Sirius would have gone to Azkaban... again. "If you kill him, you're a murderer. You go to Azkaban, and everything I tried to do is destroyed." She shook her head. "If you're gone then Peter will still be around to betray Lily and James, they'll be killed, Harry will grow up alone..." She realized she had let things slip, but it hadn't mattered since she would be going back home that night.

He had stopped raging to listen to her, his eyes wide and confused at her last statement. "How do you know they'll be killed? How DID you know Peter was up to all this...?"

She sighed, and taking his hand in hers, led him to the room of requirements. She opened it to her empty room from before, knowing that she didn't want anything more then that, that she didn't deserve anything more. Sirius dropped onto the bed, his whole body tense with exhaustion and sadness.

"Whether you'll believe this or not..." Serena took a deep breath before continuing. "I'm from the future." She pulled out the time turner from her back pocket. "This is a time turner. I used it to come back to the past and stop certain things from happening. Dumbledore is the only one who knew... except I lied to him and told him it was an accident. He never would have let me change things."

She smiled slightly at the shell shocked expression on Sirius' face. She continued on though. "I've told you about Harry haven't I? Well he's James and Lily's son... He's lived with his Aunt and Uncle since he was a year old." She held up a hand when Sirius' mouth opened, likely to ask the question, why? "Lily and James were killed by Lord Voldemort." At her casual use of the name, Sirius winced slightly, but he looked horrified at what she had just told him. "Harry lived because Lily sacrificed herself to save him, and in that act saved Harry and also destroyed Voldemort for the time being. I knew Harry later in his life, when he was 17. He was fighting against Voldemort who had come back. He succeeded... but so many people in his life were killed or lost. His friends, Dumbledore, Remus... You." Serena's voice dropped to a whisper at the last name, tears in her eyes. She had never cried for Sirius' death when she had known Harry. After all she had never known him then, but knowing him now, loving him now, caused pain at the thought of his death.

Sirius stood up from the bed, and drew her into a hug. He was showing amazing calm considering he had just been told all his friends were going to die, as well as himself.

"Harry's life was ruined... So I came back here to try and stop the key event that started it all. The death of his parents..." Her voice was muffled against Sirius' chest, but he still heard her.

"I'll assume Peter was involved."

"Yes..." Serena pulled away, and wiped her eyes. "They were on the run, and you convinced them to have Peter as their secret-keeper." At this Sirius growled softly, angry with his future self for being that stupid. "You had good enough reasons... You knew it would be assumed that you, as James' best friend would be the keeper, so you thought you could divert their attention, and for some reason you suspected Remus... Possibly since he was a werewolf. I don't know, but you never had reason to doubt Peter. That's why I stayed awake all nights and sidled up to Malfoy. I was trying to catch Peter in the act. I knew if you saw what he was really like, then obviously you wouldn't trust him anymore. You, or Dumbledore, could be the secret keeper, and Lily and James could stay alive."

Sirius surprised Serena then by picking her up and twirling her around the room, kissing her before he put her down, hugging her tightly then.

"You're very happy for hearing about that depressing future." Serena said blandly, though she was thrilled on the inside.

"You didn't cheat on me." He grinned brightly at her. "And now that future's changed. So everything will be okay. Thank you." He kissed her again. She laughed quietly at the fact that his first worry had been her cheating on him. But it seemed as though he wasn't getting one important fact... She was from the future. Did he think she was going to stay behind with him?

"Sirius..." She pulled away from him completely, so that they weren't even touching. "You're right. I hope I've changed things... But I have to go home now." She said that last bit quietly, her heart breaking over again at the confused look on Sirius' face. He had thought she was staying.

"But..." He couldn't continue though, there was really nothing to say.

"I can't stay here, can I? It's not my time. I have my family and friends in the future."

"What about your friends here?" He asked gruffly. "What about me?" His eyes shone, and Serena was shocked to see tears in his eyes. Sirius never cried. It was against his nature, he yelled, screamed, laughed, fought, but never cried.

"Sirius..." Serena sniffed, not surprised at all to find tears in her own eyes. After all she cried all the time lately. "I love you, but I have to go home. I wouldn't worry. With the way time is, it's likely you'll forget who I even was." She tried to smile, but it broke at the serious look on his face.

"That's stupid. Screw the way time is, if you go, I won't forget you."He said this rather petulantly, so that Serena laughed, even as she cried. She flew into his arms and hugged him tightly, finding herself being embraced just as tightly. Her face was covered in kisses, just as Sirius' was. Finally though she pulled away from him, and with a rather watery grin said goodbye. Before she could lose her nerve to leave, she ran out the door.


	11. Ending 1 Part 1

_A/N: Well here we are at the end... sort of. This is the first part of the first ending. I'll do each ending in two parts, so it's not dragged out too long. This one isn't my favourite, but I thought I'd do that one last :)_

_**LilySkywalker3**: Thank you for finally reviewing. Better late then never!_

_**KuramaForever**: Thank you, but you'll make me blush. I had decided to post both endings. I couldn't decide which..._

_**o****lifantje-emma**: Well I certainly wouldn't want to leave Sirius. Who would want to?_

_**Amanda:** Thank you, Check out both endings to see what happens._

_**Chyenne**: I updated! I shall endeavour to keep up the good work._

_**Tanuki jo-chan**: A sequel. I considered it for one of the endings... Who knows._

_**Mtothepowerof2:** Would you know what good porn was:) I love spammers on Though I suppose I should say thanks for reading._

_**The Cheerio-junkies:** I love you too!_

_**K McNeely**: Both endings you shall have! It was sad though wasn't it? But it gets happier:) _

_So as always, review please :) _

Ending 1 Part 1

She ran out of the school completely, and on the lawn drew out the time turner, staring at it as teardrops fell onto it, unbidden from her eyes. She took a deep breath though and turned it forward, only to stare around her as nothing had changed.

"What..." She tried again, and again, and she stayed exactly where she was, in the same time as she was. Part of her triumphed over this, she could stay with Sirius. The other half though was crying out, that she could never see her parents, or Harry, or Hermione, or anyone else again, not until they were born...

"You changed too much."

She looked up in shock at Dumbledore standing infront of her, looking unsurprised to find her outside in the early hours of the morning.

"What...?" She looked confused at him.

"You've changed the future too much to be able to go back." He walked closer, and took the time turner out of her hands. "Did it never occur to you that perhaps your existence in the future might rely on certain things happening? You can't go back to the future, since you don't exist there."

"How can I not exist?" Her mind was numb, and she couldn't grasp what he was saying.

"I don't know exactly. But my guess was that your parents were married, and had you because of something that happened in relation to what you've changed. Perhaps they were going to marry someone else that was killed, but now is going to live. I don't know. But you can't go back to some place where you've never existed."

"But I don't exist here!" Serena cried out, tears coming to her eyes again.

"Now you do. I'd say if you go ask Mr. Black or Miss Evans, they'd readily say that you exist in this time, whether you were originally intended to or not." He smiled kindly at her, even as she buried her face in her hands and cried harder. She had lost her family in that minute.

"Why don't I take you back up to the Gryffindor common room...?" He gently placed his hand on her shoulder and guided her back into the castle, and back to the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Oh dear. Is the poor girl all right?" The fat lady peered at the sobbing girl with alarm.

"Quite alright Madame. She just needs to get some sleep."

Nodding, the portrait hole opened up, and Dumbledore helped Serena into the room. Even at this late hour they walked into a room filled with people. Sirius had obviously woken up James and Remus, and somehow Lily to tell them everything that had happened. They were all in close conference as the portrait hole opened up and Dumbledore walked in.

"Professor!" James jumped up. "We've found out that Peter is plotting against..." He cut off as Dumbledore moved aside and Serena stumbled in behind him, her eyes red from so much crying. Sirius jumped up, and in an instant Serena had flown across the room into his arms, and started to cry again. He looked up at Dumbledore in alarm.

"She can't go home. Get her to bed and I'll talk to her in the morning. I'll trust you all will take care of her." He smiled and turned, walking out of the room, leaving the group to console the sobbing girl.

She didn't say anything, just continued to cry, until Lily managed to gently pull her out of Sirius' arms. At his angry look she just shook her head at him.

"She needs to get some sleep Sirius. She's not going anywhere." At this last statement, Serena made a soft sob, and Lily winced.

Remus put a hand on Sirius' arm. "Let her get some sleep. She's exhausted, physically and emotionally." Sirius, looked ready to argue more, but at James nod of agreement he backed down. He kissed Serena on the cheek, telling her he'd see her in the morning.

With that Lily led the quieted girl up the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

The boys dropped to their seats, emotionally wiped from what had happened.

"What are we supposed to do when Peter comes back...?" Remus threw the question out tentatively.

"Besides kill him?" James said annoyed. Sirius nodded his agreement, though for different reasons. While he had told his friends what he had seen tonight, he had left out everything else Serena told him. He saw no reason to shadow their lives with what might happen. He had only even told them that Serena was going home...

"We can't do that. You know we can't. Even if we'd love to." Remus said angrily. Even he wanted to kill his former friend.

"Why don't we turn the tables on him then? Use him like he used us?" James grinned at Remus and Sirius. "They think he's still on our good side, right? We let them think that, and feed false information to them, and through them their stupid dark lord. It's probably the best prank we could play on them."

Sirius rose an eyebrow at his best friend. He didn't know if he could pretend to be friends with Peter, but the idea certainly had its merits. But then if Serena could pretend to like Malfoy, he could do the same...

"It's as good an idea as we can come up with." Sirius sighed, standing up. "Other then killing him of course. I'm not overly fond of the idea of going to Azkaban though. I need to try and go to sleep though as well. We all do. Peter should find us all in our beds, don't you think?"

They all nodded, and quietly went up to bed. Each one trying to figure out the best way to deal with their former friend the next day.

Amazingly enough it turned out that the three boys were as good actors as any could hope. They treated Peter no differently then before, if perhaps picking on him more then they used to, and when he wasn't looking their looks would have killed the boy alone.

Lily came down to the common room, Peter having been gotten rid of with some stupid errand to another part of the castle, but Sirius didn't doubt that he would be going to tell Malfoy that Serena had come back.

"She fell asleep the second she touched the bed last night." Lily sighed. "I wish I could have slept as well. I couldn't stop thinking about what Peter did. Or why Serena couldn't go home..." She shook her head, and curled up next to James on the couch.

"Well I'm sure Dumbledore will explain the last bit... but Lily remember you can't treat Peter any differently."

She snorted at this, but nodded her head.

A moment later, a rather tired looking Serena came down the stairs, her eyes still puffy from a days worth of crying, a completely rejected look on her face. Sirius immediately flew out of his chair and went over to her, though he refrained from touching her at that moment, worried it would cause her to cry all over again.

"Are you okay...?" He asked instead, needing to hear for himself that she was fine. She looked up at him, and for a moment he was sure she was going to burst into tears again, but she just smiled slightly and nodded.

"I need to go see Dumbledore."

Sirius nodded, and took her hand, walking with her out the portrait hole. He only paused to wave off the others, all of whom had wanted to come as well.

"We'll tell you everything later." He smiled, and closed the door behind him.

They found the entrance to Dumbledore's office open for them, and went up immediately, gaining access to the office with no more then a knock.

"Sit down." Dumbledore said softly, nodding towards two chairs in front of his desk where he sat. "Now Mr. Black, this is what I told Miss Strangeblood last night. She can't go home. By changing your futures so completely, she's changed so much that she has ceased to exist in her time."

Sirius felt Serena's hand tighten on his own, but looking at her showed that she showed no signs of breaking down again.

"When you say ceased to exist...?"

"I mean her parents never had her, for whatever reasons those might be." Dumbeldore sighed softly. "But before you start to worry, her existence here is still solid and real. She's not going to disappear suddenly."

Sirius let out a relieved sigh, his hand releasing Serena's from the squeeze he had been giving it.

"The problem stems from this... Since she doesn't belong here, she doesn't have anywhere to go. She has nothing of her own except for the few clothes and books I gave to her. She is without a family now."

Giving his headmaster a firm look, Sirius' trademark grin fell into place on his face.

"No offense Professor... But that's bull."

Dumbledore smiled at him, and Serena looked at him in confusion. He smiled at her though before explaining.

"While it's true you don't have many possessions... You certainly have a family. James, Lily, Remus and I, we're all your family now. Just like we have always been for each other. And as for having no where to go, well that is all up to you of course, but you're certainly welcome to go wherever I go. I'm sure if not that... then any of the others would be happy to let you stay with them." Sirius looked at the Headmaster then, "She'll need some documents saying who she is. She can't just NOT exist."

"That's already been taken care of." Dumbledore, slipped a folder across the table, and Sirius took it for Serena, who was still too surprised to say anything.

"Well then everything is fine. You're a brilliant witch, so once you graduate you can get any job you want, and things will be fine." Sirius nodded, almost to himself, glad to have figured everything out.

"Aren't you lucky to have Mr. Black here with you." Dumbledore laughed quietly. "Now why don't the two of you go down to breakfast, and then of course classes." He dismissed the two, and Sirius practically dragged Serena out of there.

"For a meeting that was for you, you didn't say anything." Sirius said in conversation as they headed to the Great Hall. Serena stopped abruptly, making Sirius stop as well.

"You... You can't take care of everything like that." She kept her eyes on the ground.

"Of course I can. Don't forget I can do everything." He paused and looked her over, warmth in his eyes. "Or at least I can take care of you." Sirius shook his head, hair falling into this eyes. "Did you think I wasn't going to offer? Did you forget that I love you? Was there any other choice? Even without all this, I was going to ask you to stay with me. That has nothing to do with this."

"You're so egotistical." Serena laughed softly, taking Sirius' hand.

"Yes but you love that about me." Sirius grinned, grasping Serena's chin and lifting her head up, kissing her softly. "So you'll stay with me?"

She snorted softly, but smiled at him. "Don't YOU stay with James' family? And therefore shouldn't be offering me a place to stay?"

Sirius looked surprised and thoughtful at this but he just waved his hand. "James will offer the second he hears as well. I only offered what I knew would be offered."

"Sometimes you are a smug bastard." Serena grabbed his hand, squeezing it. "But thank you. Though I think I'll feel better hearing James offer it himself."

"I might be smug, but you adore that about me as well."

Rolling her eyes, Serena laughed, pulling Sirius down to the Great Hall.

_A/N: One half done.. I shall upload the second half sooner then normal, but It was a little long to just lump together. The second half though is wrap ups and fluff. :)  
_


	12. Ending 1 Part 2

_A/N: Okay so here is the second, and last part, of the first ending. It's really just wrapping stuff up and pure fluff. But then that's what endings tend to be :) Thank you to everyone that reviewed; **MadPoet08, Padfootzluvr, KuramaForever**. I'm glad you all liked the story, even more pleased that you LOVED it. I feel all warm and snuggly. Hopefully you'll like the second ending as much.  
_

Ending 1 Part 2

The two went down to the Great Hall, but Serena hissed softly, when she saw Peter sitting with the group.

"We decided it was best to use him like he did us." Sirius whispered in her ear. "So just keep pretending like you did before."

They walked over to the table and sat down, immediately being greeted by everyone there. Remus, James and Lily all looked concerned, and looked like they desperately wanted to ask what had happened.

Serena soon told them what had happened, the considerably edited version though. Instead of the truth, she told them her parents had died, and that she had no family left. It was a suitable explanation for her crying and not being able to return home. Just as Sirius had said, immediately everyone, except for Peter, offered their own homes for her to stay in.

"She'll stay with me of course." James said confidently. At everyone's look he grinned, and jerked his thumb in Sirius' direction. "He lives at my home. Did you think he was going to let her stay anywhere other then where he is?"

Sirius grinned rather bashfully at this. "Well, do you really blame me?"

"Thank you James." Serena said quietly. "But maybe you should ask your parents before offering...?" He just laughed her off, saying that his parents wouldn't let her say no when they found out what had happened to her own parents.

"They really are wonderful people." Lily said smiling at James. She turned to Serena though, serious. "But I expect you to come and spend some time with me as well. I don't know what we're all going to be doing when we graduate, but we all have to stay in touch."

Everyone started to plan their lives after graduation, and Serena slowly began to feel more at ease with her new life.

Of course with all the excitement, they had forgotten one very important hurdle they had to get over before graduating. They had to pass all their exams...

Serena didn't really find herself worried about any of her classes, nor did Lily or Remus. After all the three of them were the ones who actually had studied, and paid attention in class. James, Sirius and Peter were the ones who were feeling the burden of the extra studying. Serena went to extra efforts to help Sirius and James. When it came to Peter though... well she didn't feel too guilty to say that she didn't go out of her way to help him, though he sat in on some of their study sessions.

"I don't see the point in actually passing exams." Sirius said in a huff one night, after not being able to spend time alone with Serena for over a week. "I mean what is the point?"

"The point... is to show that you've actually learnt something over the past seven years. Instead of wasting money on tuition." Serena smiled slightly at him, pushing the charms book back under his nose. "Now I would hate to have to see you fail... I mean I'm sure I could get a job to support the two of us but..." She smirked at him as she left that statement hanging.

Her confident statement had the desired effect on Sirius, who growled that he wasn't about to let her take care of him completely. And his desire to pass the exams increased. Serena just smiled calmly at him, helping quiz him on his subjects.

Once the exams came everyone was almost happy. The studying had been the worst part, so taking the actual exams was almost a relief. James and Sirius came out of their last one, looking exhausted, but immediately they went off together, their heads together planning something.

Serena and Lily sat outside in the garden, and watched as Sirius, James and Remus walked away talking, planning again. The two girls had finished all their exams, and weren't even slightly worried how they did on any of their NEWT classes. Though each had a small worry for their boyfriends.

"They don't look that stressed. So they couldn't have done that badly?" Serena said hopefully. Lily snorted.

"Or they just don't care enough to realize it..." She eyed them suspiciously. "They are certainly up to something."

"The marauder's up to something?" Serena's eyes were wide in pretend innocence. "Those innocent lads? Never!" Both girls broke into fits of giggles, which caused the boys to pause in the walk, and glance back. Both girls immediately calmed down, and waved at them, smiling like nothing had happened. Their waves only got confused looks, and the boys continued on.

"I don't care what they do, as long as I'm not involved in it." Lily shook her head. "My fourth year they enchanted the library books to attack the students, without harm of course, but I was seriously put out."

The next day would show the fruit of their effort, when everyone came down to the Great Hall for dinner. Each Slytherin that walked in had the head of a different animal. Elephant, cat, moose, weasel, snake... It was like a veritable zoo. The students erupted into laughter, the zoo looking around, what could only be confused expressions crossing their animal faces.

Serena covered her grin, and had to admire the talent that had gone into this prank. Not to mention it must have been done in a way that made it so the Slytherins couldn't see what had been done to them. Serena coughed into her hand though, when Peter walked into the hall with a rat for a head. She looked at Sirius in confusion, but he just grinned.

"Peter! Did you eat one of those chocolates I left out last night?" Sirius sounded genuinely contrite, except Serena saw the tug of a grin on his lips. "I'm sorry. You seemed to have gotten caught in the middle of our prank."

Peter looked mortified when he was told he had a rat's head, but he accepted that it had been an accident.

"So this is what you have been working on all year?" Serena leaned into Sirius to ask. Sirius just grinned at her. She groaned, realizing there was something more to come. Across the hall, it seemed that the Slytherins were starting to figure out what had happened to him, and it also appeared that it wasn't just their heads which became animals, but also their voices. A cacophony of animal roars, squeaks, hisses and mutters erupted around the hall.

The teacher's on the dais were looking rather amused, Professor Slughorn got down and went to help the student's from his house, but if Serena wasn't mistaken even he looked half impressed by the charms that had gone into this prank. The amusement was quickly gone from the teacher's faces though when, soon enough the teacher's burst into song, and from the expressions none of them wanted to be doing that.

The students stared at their teachers in shock, before they all started to laugh anew.

"Double part prank then?" Serena chuckled softly. "How come McGonagall and Dumbledore aren't singing?" She looked over at Slughorn who was tap dancing, as well as singing, and at all the other teachers and staff who were now doing the same. The hall though really erupted into laughter when Filch burst into the hall, his baritone voice breaking over the hall, even while his face had a deep angry scowl. Serena couldn't help but feel that Sirius and the others were lucky to be going home in a day's time, or else Filch would have had their hides.

"Well I didn't really feel right doing a prank on Dumbledore... He did help you out after all. And as for McGonagall, well she's our head of house. And my favourite teacher."

Serena rose an eyebrow at her boyfriend. "Are you trying to tell me you're secretly in love with McGonagall?"

Sirius' laughter erupted over the hall, even louder then the still growing current of laughter from the rest of the students. This laughter though threw a chill down her spine.

"Sirius has been hitting on McGonagall since he got here." James smirked from the other side of the table. Sirius threw him an evil look.

"I like to tease her since she's always so unflappable." Sirius wrapped his arms around Serena and gave her a rather wet kiss on the cheek. "If Serena here decides she doesn't want me, I'll just cease to exist!"

The last comment caused Serena's eyes to widen, and she took a sharp breath. Sirius saw this and realized his mistake immediately, looking contrite. "I meant... I... I'm sorry."

Serena shook her head, though the laughter had died on her lips. "Nothing wrong with a joke Padfoot." He nodded, but still looked at her worried through the rest of the meal.

It was amazing that anyone could eat anything anyway, since with the Slytherins, and the teachers, it was hard to stop laughing for anyone. But somehow everyone seemed to calm down long enough to get enough in their belly. Serena had to avoid looking at Peter, since seeing a rat eat wasn't a very pleasant sight.

Once the meal ended, the Marauder's dispersed quickly enough, since they knew it was only a matter of time before one of the teacher's came to ask them about the pranks. The were the most likely candidate to have pulled it off, and of course they were the ones.

Sirius took Serena's hand, and as no surprise to her led her to the room of requirement. It was their last night in the school, and while they were both going to James' when they left, it was still sad to be leaving the school. When Sirius opened the room of requirement it was to see the atrium that they had been in on Christmas night.

"Hmm..." Serena eyed the large pond, and then grinned at Sirius. "You know... I think that pond would be perfect for a swim." Sirius looked at her in alarm, but then a sneaking grin slid onto his face.

"Darling if you want to swim, be my guest. But I don't think you have a swimsuit." His eyes traveled down her body, and back up as quickly. He tried to look innocent, but it was a look he never really had mastered.

For once though Serena matched his lecherous look as she looked at him. "Well darling, I really don't think I need a swimsuit." She patted his cheek, and walked toward the pond, and once there she quickly stripped out of her clothes, and dove into the lake.

Sirius watched wide eyed, though feeling a slight bit of disappointment since all he saw was her back as she went in. She broke above the surface and grinned at him, completely wet.

"The temperature is perfect. Did you want to come in as well...?" Serena looked at him coyly, fluttering her eyelashes at him.

"Like I had to be asked twice..." Sirius laughed softly, and pulled off his shirt. Serena blushed a deep red, and despite her intentions to appear in control, she turned away quickly as he started to pull his pants off.

"Wimp..." Sirius called out behind her, but she didn't turn around, though she was sure the memory of him standing there shirtless would stay with her forever. She heard the splash behind her and turned around to see Sirius, standing, the water above his waist, shaking his now wet hair out of his face. "Should have done this last time we were here."

"I wasn't that easy after a few days of dating." Serena chuckled. She looked a little surprised though when he started to swim toward her. "Don't come any closer!"

"You suggested this and backing out already?" Sirius grinned, but stopped about two feet from her. "Do you really think I'd stay this far away from you? Even if you weren't naked and wet?" Sirius' grin got even wider, and the distance between them closed. He pulled her into his arms, and Serena was sure that her entire body was bright red.

"I'm sorry for the comment earlier." Sirius had abruptly changed the topic, and Serena forgot her embarassment to look up at Sirius in shock.

"Sometimes I wonder if I met my parents now, if I could get them together again, then maybe I would exist again. And then I could go home..." The room had gone quiet, only the sound of the water falling off their bodies made any noise.

His arms tightened around her without even meaning to, and Sirius took a deep breath. "I don't think that would work. For one you can't make people fall in love... And second even if they did get married again, there is no way to say that the baby they would have would BE you. A different day, different circumstances, and it could be a child who looks similar to you, but isn't you." He left it unsaid that he would miss her, that he didn't want her to go. It didn't seem fair to burden her with his wishes.

Serena laughed, and Sirius looked surprised, expecting her to be depressed, even crying at what he had said. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly.

"I said sometimes I wondered. I realized all that as well. I'm not going anywhere."

Sirius couldn't help himself from kissing her back, and with no clothes between them, he found it hard to stop at just the one kiss. Things went from there...

When the two Gryffindors came back to the common room, in the early morning, they were met with rather amused expressions from their friends. All looking like they knew exactly what the pair had been up to.

"We weren't sure when you were going to get back, so we took the liberty of packing your things and sending them down to the train with the rest of the school's things. Have a nice night Padfoot?" James asked, a sly expression on his face. Sirius though only had a large goofy grin on his face at the question, Serena elbowed him in the side and muttered under her breath about men being as transparent as glass. Lily though took Serena aside and looked ready to burst with something she wanted to say.

"James proposed to me last night!" She said in an excited whisper, looking to the side Serena could see Sirius slapping James on the back. Apparently she wasn't the only one getting the news.

"And here I thought my night was good. Congratulations! You aren't going to be getting married already though?"

"No. We'll get jobs first I think... but I can't believe it. I didn't think he had it in him to be that romantic." At Serena's questioning glance Lily explained. "He took me outside by the lake, and did it there. It was really beautiful."

"Well I am more happy for you both then you could possibly know." Serena enthusiastically hugged Lily. Now the future of her friend as assured. Even if she had to be in the past, at least she knew at some point Harry would be born, and she would be able to watch over them, make sure he had a happier life this time round.

"Now you said you had a good night...?" Serena blushed in response to this question, and explained in as little detail as possible what her night had been like. Lily whistled, and looked at Sirius and then back at Serena. "And how was our Padfoot?"

Serena snorted, and shook her head. "I think that is definitely private." She grinned then though. "He was perfect as always."

They left the school, everyone a little depressed. Even though they had complained about the workload, or their treatment, they had all really loved the place. Before they got onto the train though, Serena spotted Dumbledore by the tracks and hurried over to him to say thank you.

"Miss Strangeblood. Good luck. Make sure you watch over your friends. You do realize that what you knew of the future isn't much good to you anymore. So you'll certainly have to keep a sharp watch. Whether you changed things for the better, I don't know. But things are as they are. So good luck. I am quite certain I'll see you again." He smiled benignly at her and gave her a pat on the back, before turning back to the school. She waved goodbye to him and then rushed back onto the train, and to the compartment where her friends were.

"What did Dumbledore say?" Sirius asked concerned to Serena.

"Just wishing us all good luck." Serena smiled brilliantly at the raven haired boy next to her, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. "I have an uncertain future in front of me, but I think I'm actually looking forward to it."

"Well with you here, I'm certainly looking forward to it." Sirius trademark grin was firmly in place.

"Has anyone told you two that you're becoming completely sappy?" James said sickened.

"Anyone tell you the same thing?" Serena grinned at James and Lily who were curled up together on the seat across from them.

"You're all absolutely sickening." Remus rolled his eyes. He sat next to the window, smiling slightly at the antics of his friends. "You're all going to be very happy I'm sure."

"You know... I think we need to set Moony up with someone." James said in a stage whisper to Sirius, who nodded solemnly.

"Oh please, not that..." Remus covered his face in his hands. "I've had your set ups in the past. I always spend a week dying from embarassment after. So no thank you."

Serena laughed softly. She was certainly going to enjoy spending time with these people. And who knows maybe she could set up a certain Werewolf friend of hers with a witch in the future...

"Hey... Look out the window!" Serena pointed out the window, and everyone crowded round, watching as the Castle disappeared into the distance.

_A/N: That was the first ending I wrote. It was the one I thought about doing a sequel with, about the alternate future with Voldemort yadda yadda blah blah. But as for personal preferences though... the next ending is my favourite :)  
_


	13. Ending 2 Part 1

_A/N: Okay well now here we have the second ending. Personally I like this one better. Why? Purely cause I love older Sirius :)_ _It's also ripe for angst and melodrama. Heh. Unlike the first ending, this one will be in three parts... at least. It's a bit longer._

_I also start vacation from work tomorrow for a week. So I'll probably update this and all my other stories quicker then normal :) _

_Enjoy, and please review _

Ending 2 Part 1

"Sirius..." Serena sniffed, not surprised at all to find tears in her own eyes. After all she cried all the time lately. "I love you, but I have to go home. I wouldn't worry. With the way time is, it's likely you'll forget who I even was." She tried to smile, but it broke at the serious look on his face.

"That's stupid. Screw the way time is, if you go, I won't forget you."He said this rather petulantly, so that Serena laughed, even as she cried. She flew into his arms and hugged him tightly, finding herself being embraced just as tightly. Her face was covered in kisses, just as Sirius' was. Finally though she pulled away from him, and with a rather watery grin said goodbye. Before she could lose her nerve to leave, she ran out the door.

She ran out of the school completely, and on the lawn drew out the time turner, staring at it as teardrops fell onto it, unbidden from her eyes. She took a deep breath though and turned it forward, staring around her as the world started to change, until she was finally back where she had started, if outside instead.

She looked up and found Dumbledore staring at her rather too kindly, and before she could control it, she threw herself into his arms, crying.

"So you've returned back to your time again." He said it rather simply. With that statement Serena knew that he remembered who she was, and knew what she had done. She looked up at him sharply though.

"You're still alive?" Hope and excitement ceased her tears and she smiled brightly. "Is everyone okay? Harry, Hermione, Lily, James, Remus... Sirius?" She shook her head. "Do they even know who I am?"

"All of them are fine. And as far as I know they know you. At least you seemed to be good friends with Harry and the rest during your fifth year. I don't know what you changed, but I shall assume it went as you planned?" He looked at her rather sternly then, not really approving of changing the past, but then he didn't remember what she did anymore.

Letting out an excited scream, she once again threw herself on Dumbledore, though far happier this time.

"I have one question for you though... What are you going to do about the people you left behind in the past?"

Serena made her way up to the Gryffindor common room pondering Dumbledore's last question. There had been no real answer for it. What would she do? There would be serious questions if she saw James, Lily or any of them again. After all she had known them when they were just seventeen. And here she was twenty years later, and still seventeen. Why did they have to remember her at all she thought angrily. But instantly she denied that idea. She was happy they remembered her, they were her friends, and even twenty years later that was still true. To her at least.

When she entered the common room, she was a little disappointed to not see Lily and Remus at the table doing homework, or James and Sirius perched in armchairs by the fire, discussing their latest ideas for a prank. Instead the room was occupied by a bunch of younger students who knew Serena well enough to say hello, but none she considered great friends. Her last year at Hogwarts was not going to be pleasant...

"Serena, you had a letter come by Owl for you a little while ago." A boy she vaguely remembered was called Stefan handed her a letter, his face had a slight rosy tint to it. She mumbled her thanks and his face went redder before he hurried off again. Ignoring it, she opened the letter and her face split into a big grin.

You are Invited to the Wedding of:

Hermione Granger

to

Ronald Weasley

The event will take place at the Burrows this Saturday at 1

PS. Rena, we got permission for you to come from Dumbledore. Get here

on Friday night. I need to fit you with a bridesmaid's dress. Like we talked about!

-Hermione

Serena's mind then started to recall, what she never remembered before her foray into time. That Ron was of COURSE still alive, and that they were being married just this Saturday. She wasn't sure how it was working, but her brain was almost living in two different times. Remembering what was real now, and what HAD been real only recently.

She was overjoyed for her friends, and this anticipation for the weekend made her week fly by quickly, even though she didn't have any close friends around her anymore, and even though her classes were exceedingly boring. After all she had already lived through one seventh year, albeit one twenty years ago. She spent so much time thinking about the wedding, that she failed to think about who else would be attending that wedding.

Friday after her last class, Serena was called to Dumbledore's office.

"We'll travel by Floo Powder to the Burrows." He smiled at her and let her take the powder first.

She stood in the fireplace and with a clear and strong voice said. "The Burrows"

She fell out of the fireplace, coughing out the dust and getting straight on her feet, but was only sent flying back a second later. Her knees had decided to stop working.

Standing in front of her was Sirius Black, looking at her like she was the last thing he had expected to see step out of the fireplace. She swallowed hard, hoping and dreading at once, that he might have forgotten who she was. Even during this state though she managed to get a really good look at him. He was twenty years older, but he didn't look much different from when she had last seen him, his hair had a touch of gray, that was sure and there were a few lines around his eyes, but other then that he was exactly the same. Harry's description of him no longer held. But that wasn't surprising her brain piped in. In this reality he had never going to Azkaban, he had never been a fugitive. He had been able to watch his godson grow up. And then her brain also made sure to mention that she HAD met him before, in this new reality, as her friend's godfather. She nervously dropped her eyes to the ground and started to rub the ring on her right hand with her thumb.

A cough behind her made her realize where she was, and she turned to see Dumbledore standing in the fireplace, waiting for her to move. She moved to the side, smiling sheepishly at her Headmaster.

"Sorry sir. I got a little... confused." She shrugged, and tried to ignore the fact that Sirius was still staring at her.

"Ah Sirius." Dumbledore went forward and clapped the younger man on the back. "Delighted to see you. You of course know Miss Strangeblood here. She's here as a bridesmaid for Miss Granger. So wonderful to see two people in love..." He paused there, and Serena's eyes widened in shock, Sirius' doing the same, "...getting married like this." He finished, and both people laughed until they heard each other and went silent again.

Dumbledore then abandoned Serena and swept out of the room, saying he was going to pay respects to the couple and their families.

A few minutes passed, with neither person choosing to say anything. The young auburn haired girl shuffled nervously, not sure how to deal now with the person only last week she had been telling she loved. Then again that was twenty years in the past.

"Ah... I had better go find Hermione. She wants to get me fitted for a dress. It's nice seeing you again Mr. Black." Serena opted to go with the polite approach, since she wasn't sure where things stood now. She tried to hurry past the inky haired man, but his hand reached out and grabbed her right arm. He brought the hand up to his eye level, still without saying a word, and he looked at the ring on her finger rather judiciously.

"You know..." He started, and Serena was amazed to feel tingles go up her spine at the sound of his voice, still the same voice she remembered. "I wondered why this ring never worked over the last seventeen years. I thought you were alive, so you had to have the ring." He smiled slightly, but Serena knew him well enough to see the bitter slant to his lips. "Until I met you two years ago. You didn't remember me at all. You'll probably remember the ass I made of myself when I saw you. Until I noticed you didn't have the ring. Only then did my rather thick skull get it through that you had come back in time when you were seventeen..." He let his hand drop down, but kept her hand firmly in his grip.

Serena's mind, a little groggy from the feel of Sirius' hand on hers, started to recall that first encounter she had with the older Mr. Black. He had indeed acted strangely when he saw her, yelling her name and giving her a rather tight hug. But then soon after he had distanced himself from her. Back then Serena had thought it was just his strange behavior. Harry had always said his godfather was a tad bit strange. Now though she could recognize what had happened.

"I'm sorry..." She sniffed slightly, annoyed to have tears at her eyes again. She wiped them away furiously. "I have been crying ALL the time lately." She muttered. Gaining a grip on her feelings she looked up at Sirius, staring into his grey eyes. "I'm really sorry. This is why I said you should have forgotten me. Then you wouldn't have had to spend all that time thinking about someone who was so much younger then you, and didn't even remember you."

"And you of course can't love someone who's twenty years older then you..." Sirius said softly, dropping her hand. Serena's heart tightened considerably, feeling the same way she had when he had said she didn't need him all that time ago... or had it been just six months ago. She was getting too confused by all this.

"You're Harry's godfather!" She said angrily, shaking her head. "This has to do with how improper it is for me to have feelings for one of my good friend's godparent?"

The grin that appeared on Sirius' face was instantly recognizable to Serena.

"So you still have feelings for me?" He asked, ignoring like always everything he didn't care to hear. She should have been angry with him, but it was really too hard to do.

"You really are dense Padfoot." She smirked. "If I said I loved you when you were seventeen, and for me that was only... a week ago... then the chances are that I still love you. Even if you are _sooooooo_ much older then me."

He snorted, "Who says that I'm too old? I'm only 38 you know."

"Well then, that's completely different. After all you're still in your thirties, if barely. And _only _twenty years older then me." She rolled her eyes at him, pushing her hair out of her face. "Too bad for you that it's still frowned upon by most people for a 38 year old mean to fancy a girl still in school? Especially his godson's friend. What would Harry think?" She meant all this as a joke, but she hissed softly as she saw Sirius's face fall. "Sirius..." She said softly, reaching a hand out to calm him, but he danced back out of her reach.

"Hermione is upstairs, second room on the right. Ginny and Luna are up there already." Without another word he turned and left the kitchen.

She stood there rather dumbstruck for a few moments before pulling herself together and ascending the stairs to where Hermione was.

Nothing seemed to be going well at all. When Serena had gone back in time, the purpose had been to save her friend's future. And that had been accomplished. From what Dumbledore had filled her in Voldemort had been defeated quite awhile back from a combined efforts from the now living Potters, Sirius, Remus and Dumbledore. So apparently Harry's future hadn't been the only thing changed by making the Potters live, instead it had good results for everyone else as well, which was good. So the original purpose of the trip had been fulfilled splendidly. It was just the unexpected problems. Namely Serena's falling in love with Sirius, and the problems with his age and his relationship with her friend Harry.

"Maybe this is for the best..." Serena sighed, denying that thought even as it passed her lips.


	14. Ending 2 Part 2

_A/N: I feel bad that this chapter took me so long to update since I said it would be quick... Got busy. But here is the Second Part of the Second Ending!_

_I'm rather amused that people actually thought this was going to be depressing... I adore Sirius, I can't make him unhappy for too long. So don't worry **K McNeely** and **Madpoet08**. All gets better. Thank you for the reviews of course.  
_

_Only one more chapter to go..._

Ending 2 Part 2

She stood there rather dumbstruck for a few moments, staring at the spot that Sirius had just occupied, before pulling herself together and ascending the stairs to where Hermione was. All the while she was thinking about Sirius, and the problems associated with the man. It almost made her wish he had forgotten her... almost. She knew quite well that if that had happened she would have been more depressed. She was selfish in that regard. Serena stood silently in front of Hermione's door, trying hard to fix a happy smile on to her face, even though it had problems sticking.

When she knocked, the door was flung open and she was pulled into a bear hug from the happy bride to be, and then for a few moments forgot the problem that was Sirius Black. She was able to see that at least in this her plan had worked, Hermione and Ron were alive and getting married!

"You have to come to mine and Harry's wedding, Rena" Ginny said suddenly, causing everyone to go quiet before immediately everyone started to ask questions. Ginny's face was a match for her hair, but she smiled serenely at the lot of them.

"He asked me just last night, so I wasn't hiding anything. I just wanted to wait until Rena had got here." Serena and Ginny had become good friends during Ginny's last year, being the only two of the group still left at school, now she hugged her friend happily.

The group sat around for awhile trying on their dresses, chatting and gossiping about everything. And since the group included Luna this meant everything, including the supposed infestation of martians at 10 Downing Street. Soon though the topic changed in a direction Serena wasn't overly comfortable with... her own love life.

"Okay. So Hermione here is getting married, and I will be as well... Even Luna there is happily involved with Neville." The girl being pointed at was smiling a rather goofy smile, and Serena was going to say congratulations but Ginny kept on going. "You on the other hand I have never even seen involved with a boy, or even say you liked one." She narrowed her eyes at the auburn haired girl.

"Well uh... I've been busy?" She suggested, without any confidence, just causing all the girls to snort.

"I think we need to set her up..." Luna said in her strange voice. "I know this boy who works for my father... he likes blast end skrewts..." At this all there was a universal no from all the girls.

"There's no need to set me up." Serena said, determination in her voice. "I don't need it. I am perfectly capable of getting my own boyfriend." She sighed at this though, since at this point in time the only boy she wanted... well he wasn't even a boy anymore, but a man... and twenty years her senior... as well as Harry's godfather, wasn't eager to jump these hurdles.

Hermione had leaned forward during this period and was looking at Serena strangely. She sat up and nodded, rather sure of something. "You already have your eye on someone don't you? That was a sigh of a lovelorn girl. I know it well..."

Without meaning to, Serena blushed giving away the truth of that statement to everyone. She cursed her body's reaction, wishing it for once could stop reacting in ways she didn't like. Mainly the sudden blushing and crying. They always happened at the most inopportune times, and with the wrong people around.

"Do we know him?" Ginny asked, eager to know what was going on.

"Of... Of course not..." She said haltingly, but everyone shook their heads.

"Did you hear that stutter?" Luna asked everyone. Hermione and Ginny nodded, trying to look like wise older women. They were only a year or two older then her... the nerve of some people.

"So we DO know him?" Ginny mused thoughtfully to herself, trying to work out in her head all the men she knew who could be the object of fascination for a girl like Serena. "It's not one of my brothers is it?" She asked.

"No!" Serena said quickly, but looked abashed at the vehemence of that statement. "No offense to your brothers Gin, but they're all like MY brothers. That's just... wrong."

"Well it can't be Harry either, you've always said he was like your brother." Hermione said. "Not to mention Ginny here would impale you." Serena laughed at Ginny's forced fierce look.

"Maybe it's someone older?" Luna said, "One of the Order members perhaps?" Everyone laughed, thinking this was ridiculous.

Serena's pale look though made their laughter die, and they all looked at her, shock evident on their features. They crowded closer to her, looking extremely eager to know which one it was.

"Who is it? Lupin, Sirius, Shacklebolt...Mad Eye?" This last suggestion caused Hermione to break down into fits of giggles.

"I do not like Mad Eye or Shacklebolt." Serena said firmly, looking put out with the group of girls. But they ignored her look, and immediately fixated on the fact that she hadn't denied the first two.

"Oh... Sirius or Remus then..." Ginny sat there, looking thoughtful, chewing on her bottom lip. "Well both are certainly attractive for their age. Wouldn't blame you for either. I know Sirius is especially admired among ALL of the female wizards in the order. Even my mother fancies him to a certain degree. I of course have Harry, so I can't say I feel the same way, but you'd have to be blind not to notice THAT one." She whistled, and to Serena's surprise the other two girls nodded.

"Hell I had a crush on him from the time I met him during my first year." Hermione sighed wistfully. "Until Ron grew up..." She grinned. But the grin slipped a bit seeing the annoyed look on Serena's face.

He had been so damned popular back at school, and that hadn't changed at all. He was still the center of attention, even in his middle age, or his near middle age. The idea rubbed Serena raw and she started to get angry with him, for no other reason than he allowed girl's to like him. As if he had any choice. But the thought turned in a different direction when it occurred to her that in the last twenty years it was entirely possible, and likely that he had moved on.

"You like Sirius." Hermione said matter of factly, though her expression looked a little surprised. "When did this start? You met him two years ago... Did you then?"

"She couldn't have." Ginny said quickly. "Last year she never mentioned it, and she's never seemed to care at all when he was around, or if he was mentioned. Certainly not paling like she is now..."

They all regarded her strangely, and she coughed slightly into her hands, wishing her friends weren't all so damned bright.

"I just think he's attractive. I don't like him." She stood up, pushing the hair out of her face. "As you said, everyone thinks that." She couldn't hide the bite from her last statement, and Hermione at least noticed it. That had sounded too jealous by far.

"I'm going to see if Ron is around..." She moved to the door.

"He'll be in his room down the hall with Harry."

"Harry's here?" Serena said surprised.

"Of course. Him and his parents arrived yesterday."

Serena's hand tightened on the door knob, knowing that Lily and James were there made her so happy and worried, her meeting with Sirius hadn't gone too well. What was going to happen with them? She promised to be back, and then left the room, going down the hall to the boy's room.

"Harry? Ron?" She knocked tentatively, but a loud Come In, made her open the door quickly. She was immediately given a tackle and a hug by Harry who grinned up at her through a mop of black hair, and she bit back an exclamation, since on his forehead was no lightning scar.

"Nice to see you too Harry." She breathed out as she was finally released. Her brain was filling in the blanks now, filling her in once again about this new reality. Since Lily and James hadn't died, Harry hadn't been scared, and his whole life had changed. He had lived happily with his parents, had spent holidays with his Godfather and Uncle Remus, he had gone to Hogwarts as was normal, and made friends with Hermione and Ron. Life had been normal...

"Have you seen my lovely bride to be then?" Ron asked, his face showing his deep feelings for Hermione.

"Yes. And Herry's as well." She smirked at the surprised look on Harry's face.

"Aw... I wanted to tell you." He sighed and plopped back onto the bed. "Before I forget though, my parents said they wanted to see you when you came in. Not sure why really." Harry shrugged. "But you know well enough they like to be listened to." He laughed at that, and Serena laughed quietly with him, knowing that was certainly true. "Go on down now actually. They're at the end of the hall on the right."

Without paused, Serena left the room and headed down the hallway, rather feeling like a prisoner walking their last... She knocked on the door hesitantly.

"Who is it?" Serena knew that as James' voice.

"Serena..." She mumbled, wondering if she had even been heard, when the door was thrown open, and an older version of Lily and James stood there looking at her like she was from another planet. "Harry... he said you wanted to see me." She tried to fill in the silence. "I promise I didn't do whatever it is you thought I did..." Before she could say anything else, Lily had pulled her into a tight hug.

"We wondered where you had gone!" Lily exclaimed. "Sirius only told us the truth right before we met you two years ago." Lily was looking thrilled at finally seeing her old friend, and finally knowing that at this age, Serena would have been in the past already.

"Nice of Padfoot that. After all would have been slightly strange seeing you twenty years later, and two years younger then when we had known you." James muttered. Apparently he hadn't changed, his hair was still sticking up in all directions, exactly like his son's.

"I'm really sorry I didn't tell you all. But I really thought that since I had changed things, than in the future you wouldn't remember me. I sort of hoped I was wrong..." She finished sighing.

Lily had guided her to the bed, and sat down with her there, as James plopped into a chair.

"Have you seen Sirius?" James asked suddenly. He blanched slightly at Lily's firm look but continued on anyway. "I wasn't going to stay quiet on this, no matter what you said Lils... I've watched my best friend be depressed for twenty years, I think I am allowed one question."

"Yes I saw him." Serena said, looking at James. "And I don't know why he would be depressed, he's been surrounded by girls since then hasn't he? Ginny told me he's STILL all the girl's dream guy."

James let out a short laugh, shaking his head until his hair fell into his eyes, the same as she remembered. His red haired wife though was looking at Serena seriously now.

"Rena..." Lily was using her nickname, shaking her head now. "Sirius is still popular yes, but he hasn't had a single relationship. As annoyed as I am at my dear husband, he's right, Sirius has been depressed for the last twenty years."

Serena stood up and looked angrily at her two old friends, her hands on her hips. "And what exactly do you want me to do about this?" She pointed angrily at Lily. "I told you I couldn't date Sirius back then? This was why! But everyone pushed me, and I gave in. And YES I loved him, but what do you expect from me now?" She angrily wiped at the tears that of course had to come out then. "He's Harry's godfather for crying out loud! And in case you've forgotten TWENTY years older then me."

"Is that all?" Serena whirled to look at James like he had just grown two heads. "Age is really just a number after all, and anyway wizards live much longer then muggles so the age gap will won't even be noticeable soon. And as for him being Harry's godfather... I don't think my son would care. He loves Sirius, and he cares about you. He's been as depressed as we that Sirius couldn't find happiness. He'd LOVE you if you did it."

Serena lost the steam from her argument and looked down at the floor. "He doesn't love me anymore anyway... He ran away from me before..."

Lily and James exchanged a look before both laughed softly. This didn't get a good reaction from their friend.

"Yes, he told us earlier." Lily said, still laughing quietly. "You two never could work things out in a quick clean manner could you? A month of hating each other, two months not talking, the Malfoy incident, now this..."

"Sirius seems to think that you don't love him anymore since he's so much older then you. Of course this is a load of poppycock since you're both still wearing your rings." He looked pointedly at the silver ring on her right hand. "Now I would greatly appreciate it if you would please, PLEASE, go deal with this situation in a more timely fashion then you two normally would."

"I'm still at school..." Serena said, her voice somewhat strangled.

"And in the wizarding world, 17 is of legal age. So other then a few strange looks you might receive, there is no real problem."

"Fine I'll go talk to him..." Her voice sounded defeated even to her own ears.

"Marvelous! He's up the stairs, fourth room on the right." James saluted Serena, and Lily gave her a comforting pat on the back.

"Are..." Serena started as she opened the door. "Are you both still my friends?"

"Like twenty years would change that." Lily smiled encouragingly, and James rather awkwardly gave her a hug.

"It's strange I'll admit... but hell, I still remember you back at school. So of course." He then rather abruptly pushed her out the door, a quick good luck said before he closed the door.

Bugger the lot of them...

Even slower then before, Serena ascended the stairs again and stood in front of Sirius door, but she didn't knock. She stared at the pine door trying to figure out in her head what she was going to do. The truth stood as this... She was certainly still in love with Sirius Black, twenty years, a few gray hairs and all. Truthfully she remembered being with him in the past, and it made her want him again in this time period, not caring at all about how old he might be. And if James was right, and if Harry didn't care... then her excuse about him being a godfather of a friend didn't stand well either. It was all quite simple, but then when was her relationship with Sirius simple.

She knocked on the door though since she had promised Lily and James. She would talk to Sirius, and somehow get some solution to everything. Sirius opened the door, and immediately Serena felt her knees go weak again.

Standing there in only a pair of sweat pants, and looking like he had been about to go to sleep stood a very delicious looking man. Any arguments Serena might have had about his age, were gone immediately. He still looked just as good as he had when he was seventeen. Truth be told he looked better even. He had filled out muscularly, as well as losing what remained of the childishness in his face.

"I..." She swallowed, and moved her eyes away from his chest to look at him. She saw a smile tugging at his lips. "I need to talk to you." She finished, if a bit pathetic. It was hard to recover your composure when you had been caught staring at a man's chest. Serena breezed under Sirius's arm holding the door open, and turned to look at him as he closed it.

"I've just been given a good talking to from Lily and James." Serena sighed, pushing her hair out of her way, her other hand on her hip.

"How are the two?" Sirius said, avoiding the obvious destination of this conversation. He moved back into the room and dropped on to his bed.

"They're fine as you well know." Serena huffed. "And would you STOP changing the subject!" She regarded him calmly, calm as long as she avoided looking below his neck. "Ginny was telling me how you're still the center of all the witches wet dreams." She said abruptly causing Sirius to look up at her in shock. "Like twenty years would have made a difference. You're still as attractive as back then." She muttered before getting quiet.

"Does this conversation have a point?" Sirius asked, looking almost annoyed at her for coming here to talk about other girls liking him.

"If you were still that popular, and it had been twenty years since you saw me.. Sort of... then why the hell didn't you have another relationship?" She asked, though she only sounded curious.

"Why the hell would I have had a relationship?" Sirius asked frustrated, raking his hand through his long locks. "Did you think I was lying to you when I told you I loved you? Did you think that would have changed at all?"

Serena stared at him before sighing. "This conversation isn't going the way I was planning it to."

"What you mean your conversation where you tell me that even while you might have liked me when I was your age, now I'm too old for you and therefore your feelings are different?" There was a distinct bitter note to Sirius voice. Serena couldn't help but wonder how long he had wondered about this. If he had indeed spent twenty years thinking she was going to never love him again.

"No..." She shook her head vehemently. "The conversation where I tell you, screw the age difference and the godfather thing. I still find you attractive. In fact I find you MORE attractive now." She held up her right hand to him, as he stared at her in shock. "If my feelings had changed THIS would have come off, right? Honestly... I thought you were smarter than that Black." She grinned at him then, and was rewarded by the roguish grin slipping on his features as he stood up.

"So you don't think I'm a perverted old man?"

She shook her head, as he took a step toward her.

"Well older certainly... and perverted, just not in the way you're implying." She grinned, but he continued toward her ignoring the comments.

"And you don't care that I'm your friend's godfather anymore."

Another shake of her head, brought him closer.

"Or that you're going to be thoroughly kissed by a 38 year old man?"

Sirius roguish grin was firmly in place when he finally stood right in front of her. Without shaking her head, Serena threw her arms around his neck and before he could do anything, she kissed him soundly.

"You always did kiss me first..."


	15. Ending 2 Part 3

_A/N: So with quite an amount of sadness, I bring you the LAST chapter of Stranger in Paradise._

_To everyone who reviewed... **linac428, Sadiler, olifantje-emma, lilyskywalker3, kurama-forever, Amanda, Chyenne, Tanuki jo-chan, The Cheerio-junkies, K McNeely, Padfootz-luvr, MTothepowerof2, madpoet08, Phyre's Child13, Ythefrown2day, lizbeth, starlover88, DG of time and space** and **Dawn**... Thank you all very much for taking the time to review the story for good or bad. _

_And everyone else who read but didn't review... well I won't hold that against you :) Thank you for reading... and hopefully you enjoyed it._

_Hopefully the ending is okay, never really know how to end these things without making them too corny or deep. _

_As for sequels, I know some people expressed an interest. It's a certain possibility, though I have no idea which ending to do. The first one I think has interesting possibilities, but I like the relationships in the second one. We'll see, though don't expect it for awhile, I'm busy writing my other story Reality Upside Down (go read it.. really, go!) Please tell me all your thoughts on the idea and what would be most enjoyable to read. _

_And anyway, no more random rambling... Here's a cookie for reading this far, so now.. please enjoy the ending :)_

Ending 2 Part 3_  
_

The next morning Serena rather carefully snuck out of Sirius' room. Since it was only six in the morning, there wasn't any real plausible excuse she could think of to explain coming out of the older wizard's room this early. Luckily for her no one else seemed to be up on this floor, that included the raven haired wizard she was leaving still in bed. She didn't think Sirius would mind her leaving though, since she at least had to get up and get ready for the wedding, help Hermione and all. All he had to do was shower and put on a suit...

The next floor down though was certainly a different story, with Ron and Hermione both awake, coming and going into their rooms, trying very hard to not look at each other and blush.

"Serena! Where have you BEEN?" Hermione cried out, seeing Serena descend the stairs rather secretively. She looked up the stairs, and then back at Serena, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Were you upstairs for a reason? Your room was down the hall."

"I went to see if the bathroom up there was free..." Serena smiled, rather amazed once again at her acting ability. Hermione nodded, and grabbed her hand pulling her back to her room.

"I have only seven hours before the wedding! That's not enough time!"

Serena hid her smile behind her hand, rather amused at the idea that seven hours wasn't long enough to put on a dress, but then a wedding day deserved more pomp and circumstance then any other event. She didn't doubt that Hermione had a whole long list of things that MUST be done.

"Do I have to be involved in this seven hour dressing?" Serena asked, yawning rather tired.

"When did you go to sleep?" Hermione looked suspicious once again, but Serena smiled innocently at her.

"Well I tried to get to sleep but I was too excited about your wedding."

This excuse seemed to work as well as the other one, and Hermione accepted it. Which was all well and good, since it would be a little awkward to explain what she HAD been doing in Sirius' bedroom all night...

"No you don't have to be involved in the seven hour dressing..." Hermione smirked. "I don't either... I'm just starting to get a little panicky... I won't actually start getting dressed for awhile yet. If you don't mind though I would appreciate you keeping me company. I'm starting to get worried."

Serena snorted, rather unladylike behavior she knew, but the idea of Hermione getting worried about marrying Ron was ridiculous. "You have nothing to worry about. You'll look beautiful, the wedding will go off without a hitch, I'm sure somehow even Ron will look handsome." At this Serena received a small glare from Hermione but she ignored it. "And by the end of the day you shall be happily Mrs. Hermione Weasley." She couldn't help smirking at the name, but this time Hermione luckily didn't notice, instead getting a rather sweet dreamy look in her eyes.

Around an hour later, Ginny and Luna both arrived in Hermione's room, showing that none of the girls were sleeping too well. It wasn't just the girls though. According to Ginny, Ron had woken Harry up to keep him company since he couldn't sleep in.

At around 10 o'clock sounds could be heard from downstairs, indicating that the rest of the house had woken up, and that likely Molly was making breakfast. This thought caused Serena's stomach to rumble, but she wasn't alone everyone else was doing the same.

"You all can go down and eat..." Hermione said, though at that point her stomach made noise as well. She laughed, but shook her head. "I can't go down though, I don't want to see Ron before the wedding."

Serena stood up and patted Hermione on the back. "I'll bring you up a plate of something. We'll be back up as soon as possible."

Together the three girls headed downstairs to the kitchen where Molly Weasley was indeed making breakfast. The girl's sat down at the table, and started to chat with the older woman about how things were going. At that instant there was a flash, and suddenly Remus Lupin appeared in the fireplace, coughing slightly from the floo powder.

"Sorry. I didn't realize you'd all be here." He smiled bashfully, but Molly just gave him a hug.

"At least I don't use the fireplace to cook..." She laughed.

At that point though Remus sighted Serena and he blinked slightly when he saw her. Her brain mentally poked her, letting her know that every single time she had seen Remus over the last two years, he had always looked confused when he saw her, hopeful as well. She didn't doubt this was because he was always waiting to see if she remembered yet or not. She grinned brightly at him and stood up, flying over to him and giving him a big hug, much to everyone's surprise.

"Remus! I've missed you!" Serena gave him a big sloppy kiss on the cheek, which caused the now older Remus to blush profusely. He had aged perhaps not as well as his friends, but he still looked much the same, his robes still a mess, his hair still sandy brown with only a touch of grey sprinkled throughout.

When she released him from the hug, she saw Ginny's wide eyed expression, and knew that she was getting the complete wrong impression from that.

"I wasn't even aware you two knew each other that well." Molly said.

"Oh the two of them are old friends."

Serena looked over to see Sirius leaning against the doorway, still wearing his sweat pants, but at least now he had a shirt on as well.

"So you remember now?" Remus looked at Serena, and then back at Sirius. Everyone else in the room looked completely confused, but Serena just smiled at her old friend.

"I got back a week ago." She held up her right hand, showing the ring. "See. It's me and everything."

"So are you two...?" Remus nodded pointedly in Sirius' direction.

"Well Moony old pal, that I don't think is supposed to be common knowledge." Sirius said blandly.

"Not that any of us have a clue what you're all saying." Luna said, though she didn't look confused, unlike the two Weasley women. She was too busy perusing the latest issue of the Quibbler.

"They'd likely die of shock I'm sure." Sirius said, sounding ever so slightly bitter.

Serena snorted, and pushed her hair out of her face. "You'll have to pardon old Padfoot there, Remus. He's suffering from oldmanitis... He's very bitter and cranky. Especially in the morning."

"Only when I get left on my own without any warning." Sirius looked at Serena sharply there.

"What? You were SLEEPING?" She blinked then and covered her mouth, everyone in the room looked like Sirius had said, shocked, though no one looked ready to die. Molly though looked outraged at the idea.

"You...She..." She sputtered, and Serena had to wince. Molly had a habit of treating all of the younger group as her children.

"Now Molly... There is a very good explanation for this." Remus started, but he paused trying to think of how to explain it. "They're in love?" He finished rather lamely, even if it was the truth.

Serena covered her face in her hand, and sighed, counting to three before Mrs. Weasley lost it.

1

2

3

"She's still in SCHOOL? And you're twenty years older? And you say you're in love? That's... that's preposterous!"

"Mother I never thought you'd say being in love was preposterous?" Ginny looked put out with her mother, standing up for her friend, even if she was surprised at this sudden turn of events. After all she had only found out her friend found Sirius attractive last night, and now all of a sudden they were in love.

"You know I don't think it's healthy to be yelling this early in the morning, especially before a wedding." James and Lily chose that moment to walk in. "Hey Moony. Glad to see you." James walked over and patted his friend on the back. "What is going on?"

Molly looked fit to be tied, and Lily went over to her, thinking that there was something seriously wrong.

"Sirius has... he's taken advantage of a young girl!" Molly exclaimed, thinking that the Potters as parents would understand, but they sadly disappointed her.

"So you two got all of that settled?" James sighed. "Thank god. I was worried it was going to be a few months of not talking like last time."

James seemed unaware of the glare he was receiving from Molly at that point. Serena and Sirius both smiled at James slightly, nodding.

"Now Molly..." Lily said, trying to calm her down.

"Last time?" Ginny picked up on this little tidbit. "I didn't think you really knew Sirius that well Rena, what IS going on?"

"Molly, there are VERY special circumstances to this..." Lily was still trying to calm down Mrs Weasley. The older woman though just couldn't understand how they all could be okay with this.

"Well... Gin..." Serena paused trying to think how this should be explained. "I'll explain everything when Harry, Ron and Hermione are here. So after the wedding." Ginny though didn't accept this, and immediately took off to drag the other three downstairs. She returned a few minutes later, three rather confused people behind her. Serena groaned.

"What is going on?" Harry looked around, before settling on his father.

"Well... " James looked a little put out to be the one to explain. "Serena is about to explain to everyone how she ended up in love with Sirius." He smiled, pushing off the explaining on someone else.

This started three new bursts of questions from the new comers. Hermione and Ron were so surprised they didn't even really notice each other, and right before their own wedding as well.

"Sirius..." Harry looked at his godfather quizically. "Have you been seducing my friends?" He asked this half jokingly, but there was definitely a serious note to it.

"Of course I haven't!" He answered gruffly. "She kisses me first anyway."

"Oh thanks..." Serena muttered. "Make it sound like I seduced you. You were the one following me around for two months, even though I said no."

This started Molly up anew, hearing what she assumed was a child's refusal of an older man's advances.

"Rena, would you just put them all out of their misery, before Sirius is hexed to oblivion by Molly." Remus said sternly, though he looked highly amused. Sirius for his part had rather sneakily moved behind his own godson.

"Oh fine..." Serena took a deep breath. "I went back in time this year." She decided to leave out the reasons why, and decided to go with the accidental story. "I didn't mean to, but I did... and ended up twenty years in the past at Hogwarts. And I was stuck there until Dumbledore could find a way for me to come back. So I stayed there...for nine months."

Lily chose to jump in there. "She became friends with me, as well as James, Sirius and Remus. Sirius fell in love with her, she fell in love with him. They were both only seventeen at the time, but despite all that when she was able to she came back here. So Sirius has been in love with her for twenty years, and she's still in love with him. Now isn't that okay Molly?"

Molly was at that point looking rather pitifully at Sirius who just snorted at her mood change. But then Mrs Weasley had always loved romantic stories.

"That's... amazing." Hermione said, blinking.

"So that's why you've been depressed all these years?" Harry asked curiously to his godfather, who just nodded. "Well then if this cheers him then I'm all for it. And Serena's my friend. Glad to see the two of them happy. Odd sure... but only as odd as Hermione and Ron." Harry ducked Ron's mock punch. But this seemed to remind everyone that they were going to have a wedding in just a few hours. Hermione noticed Ron, and Ron noticed her, and they both squeaked and flew out of the kitchen.

"Okay. Everyone eat your breakfast..." Molly was immediately the mother again, and made everyone eat up. Serena was just amused at how quickly all her friends had gotten used to the idea of her with Sirius.

"You know I woke up alone and figured last night was all a dream." Sirius whispered, coming up to stand next to Serena finally.

"Maybe it's your old and feeble mind." Serena fluttered her eyelashes up at Sirius who just snorted, deciding he was going to have to get used to the old jokes. "I promise next time I'll wake you up when I leave." She went on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek, but then blushed when she saw everyone watching her. "What? I thought you all were okay with this now?"

Harry was grinning, as well as his parents and Remus. "Of course it's okay. I'm just amazed that it only took you one night." James shook his head. "I was getting ready for a month of passed messages and glaring..."

"It's still just a bit surprising." Ginny said in wonder. "Up until last night I didn't think you even knew him. Of course all that time in the past is different." She shook her head. "It really is romantic though..."

Serena rolled her eyes. "Please Gin. Don't go on about how romantic it is that after twenty years we found each other... I don't need to think of my life as a romance novel."

"Some parts of romance novels are fun..." Sirius whispered into her ear, but she just elbowed him, smiling benignly.

"Padfoot, dear... Careful or this will turn into a horror novel."

"Well we already have the time travel, the werewolf, the defeat of a dark wizard..."

"The large furry black dog who trips over his own feet." James pointed out, ducking in case Sirius chose to punch him.

"Oh... right that time he broke his own nose." Remus started to laugh, soon joined in by James and Lily. Everyone else looked a little surprised at this news.

"My godfather... the AMAZING Sirius Black tripped and broke his OWN nose?" Harry looked mildly shocked. Like learning that Superman was actually a 14 year old kid who liked to wear his underwear outside his pants.

Sirius muttered, but Serena gave his hand a quick squeeze. "That was all my fault actually..." She smiled, finally telling the truth. "I sort of hexed his feet to trip at that point." Serena squeaked when Sirius made a motion to grab her, dancing away from him and hiding behind Remus. "Sorry if they've been making fun of you for twenty years because of that." Serena's grin though showed that she was anything but sorry.

"You are certainly going to pay for that later." Sirius muttered, but his eyes were smiling at her.

"I'm sure I'll enjoy it immensely." She beamed a smile at him. "But now I need to go up and get ready, and make sure Hermione is still alive." Together with Ginny and Luna, she left the kitchen.

Weddings are always beautiful, joyous events filled with all the love and happiness in the world. And all for just one single day. Today's wedding though was so much more then that for Serena. It was a affirmation of everything she had done, a successful mission completed. _All_ of her friends were around her, old and new. Everyone was alive and happy. Harry was a normal, well adjusted boy who loved his parents and was in turn adored by them. Amazing how one single event changed can change so much. When she had first decided to go back in time everyone had been different.

So many of the people now laughing and congratulating the newly married couple, had been dead just a short period of time ago. Dumbledore, Lily, James, Remus, Ron... And even more had been devastated by their losses. There were no weddings in that future.

"You're looking far too serious and thoughtful for a bridesmaid." Sirius had suddenly appeared behind Serena, wrapping his arms around her waist, nuzzling her neck. "You should be shagging the best man's godfather in the downstairs bathroom."

"Tell me again, is Harry the best man, or Neville?" Serena smirked slightly. "I don't really know Neville's godfather too well. Are you sure you'd be okay with that?" She let out a short scream when her side was pinched by the taller man.

"What were you thinking about?" His tone was serious now, his arms tightening around Serena.

"I was just comparing this reality to the one I had left just a week ago. It's much better." She tried not to sound too proud of herself, but it was hard to keep it out of her voice. Though it wasn't really right to do so, somehow this reality must have it's faults. Every one does.

Sirius stayed quiet, resting his chin on her shoulder, watching as Harry danced rather badly with the bride. Watched as James and Remus had their heads together by the bar, looking mischevious, and triumphant when Ron came running along, his face bright red from something that had just happened. Watched as Dumbledore danced rather well with Molly, twirling her along the dance floor, his eyes twinkling, likely from a few too many butterbeers. Watched as Lily giggled like a young girl as James magicked some floors to appear in her hair.

"Do you want to dance?" Serena pulled away from Sirius, turning to him and holding her right hand out to him, the silver ring bright.

"I sort of like just watching them all."

At his comment Serena just laughed and grabbed his hand, the silver rings connecting, pulling him onto the dance floor.

"No need to watch them. They're not going anywhere now."

"I'm a hopeless dancer."

"So am I."

"I might step on your feet."

"My parents always told me I had lead feet."

"My old back might give way."

"I'll hold you up."

"I could kiss you in front of everyone."

Before he could even follow through with his threat, Serena had wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips softly. It caused quite a stir with the people in the room who hadn't been appraised of the situation, but neither of them really cared.

"I can't have you starting a trend."

"Will you marry me?"

Serena lost her footing for a moment, but regained it quickly, dancing like nothing had happened.

"Absolutely not." She reached up and ghosted her lips over Sirius's cheek. "Ask me when I graduate school."

For Sirius that was good enough, and risking starting a trend, he closed the space between them and kissed her.


End file.
